Poulsbo staff propose $1 per minute fee for body‑worn camera redaction; council asks staff to consider tribal requests

Professional services manager Kelly Zeman presented a proposed body‑worn camera reduction fee to the Poulsbo City Council on Oct. 1, citing RCW 42.56 (the Public Records Act) as authority to collect reasonable redaction costs from requesters before processing recordings.

Zeman said the city has seen increasing requests for camera footage and that roughly 54% of requests come from nonexempt persons or organizations. To recover staff time, Zeman proposed a fee based on $60 per hour of staff time — implemented as $1 per minute of raw footage billed up front — because staff must review footage to determine whether specific redactions apply. She said other jurisdictions use similar approaches: Bainbridge Island charges about $0.90 per minute; Bremerton and Port Orchard use a $1 per minute raw footage model; Kitsap County uses a structure tied to reduction time that is more administratively complex.

Councilmembers asked whether tribal governments or the Office of Independent Investigations would be exempt from fees. Zeman said the RCW lists particular exemptions (people involved in the incident, their attorneys, insurance companies and certain oversight bodies) but not tribal governments by name; she said the city attorney could be asked whether to add an administrative exemption for formal tribal requests and would report back. Chief Harding and several councilmembers said they favored implementing fees promptly to deter commercial or “fishing” requests that materially increase staff workload; one councilmember recommended placing the item on the next consent agenda with a staff follow‑up on tribal exemptions.

No formal ordinance or vote was taken at the Oct. 1 workshop; staff said they would return the proposal for council action after consulting the city attorney and finalizing fee language.