The City of Clovis Police and Fire departments are seen at civic center Friday, April 11, 2025 in Clovis.
ERIC PAUL ZAMORA
ezamora@fresnobee.com
The Clovis Police Department is under grand jury scrutiny for charging certain fees for copies of police records that it says could violate state law.
The department might have violated state law for failing to establish policies and procedures and for imposing a predetermined flat fee instead a fee schedule based on the volume of records requested, according to a grand jury report released this week.
Currently, the police department charges public requesters $7 for a copy of a police report, $75 for reproducing a CD or DVD, $55 for duplicating digital photographs, and $200 for reproduction of 35mm photographs, according to the fee standards displayed in the department’s lobby.
The police department and Clovis city management were unable to prove whether its past and current record fees meet the legal standards of state laws, the grand jury said in its critical report. The officials were also unable to explain the protocol the department used to determine and review the rates.
“The only consistent conclusion was that Clovis Police prepares its own fee schedule, passes its proposed record fees on to city management for Clovis City Council discussion and final approval,” the report says.
In an emailed statement to The Bee, the police department said the city is conducting a thorough review of the fees and will provide a response to the grand jury.
“Upon conclusion of that review, any necessary changes will be identified and promptly implemented,” said Ty Wood, the police department’s spokesperson.
Outdated fee assessment
The grand jury found that the police department’s last fee assessment was conducted in 2010, when it hired a national consulting firm to help set the rates. The firm provided a data model for the department to generate fees and recommended that updates occur every four to five years.
Over the years, the police department, however, did not have a standardized procedure specifying when and how fee schedules should be reviewed and to ensure the adjustments were reasonable and in accordance with state law to guarantee public access to governmental services.
The most recent fee revision took effect in January 2023. The current rates represent an increase of approximately 40% compared to the fees in 2011.
Officials told the grand jury that the rising fees were calculated based on the consulting firm’s model, along with the growth rate from the 2010 cost-of-living index to the 2022 cost-of-living index. The fee changes were to recover costs associated with the increase in labor for producing these services, the report wrote.
“The grand jury learned there was concern because fee schedules are not being reviewed regularly, the fee schedule may have been relying on outdated information, and may not reflect current laws,” the report said.
By imposing a predetermined flat fee no matter how much labor goes into the record production or the volume of the record requested, Clovis Police may have also violated the California Public Records Act’s “direct costs” standards, according to the grand jury.
For comparison, the Fresno Police Department does not charge for a collision report requested in person or $12 if requested online. Standard accident and crime reports are free for the first ten pages, and $0.2 per page afterwards, according to the rates posted on the department’s website.
In the report, the grand jury asked Clovis City Council to direct the police department to conduct a fee assessment and to develop a standard procedure on reviewing and amending future record fees.
The city has 90 days to respond to the grand jury.
Related Stories from Fresno Bee
The Fresno Bee
Leqi Zhong is the Clovis accountability/enterprise reporter for The Bee. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a Master’s degree in journalism. She joined The Bee in 2023 as an education reporter. Leqi grew up in China and is native in Cantonese and Mandarin.