Bill Text: NY S04050 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Authorizes police agencies to charge fees for searching, copying, and mailing police agency generated records except for where the requesting party is a victim to or was charged with the crime related to such documents.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-31 - REFERRED TO FINANCE [S04050 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-S04050-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4050

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    January 31, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens. SKOUFIS, PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed,
          and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance

        AN ACT to amend the executive law, in  relation  to  authorizing  police
          agencies  to include administrative costs in fees for copies of police
          agency records

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 837-y
     2  to read as follows:
     3    § 837-y. Fees for copies of police agency records. 1.  Fees generally.
     4  Except  as provided by law that no fee shall be  charged,  local  police
     5  agencies may charge a fee for searching the police agency records, copy-
     6  ing the resulting documents, and preparing such documents for mailing as
     7  provided  in  this  section.  Provided,  however,  that  no fee shall be
     8  charged to any public officer, board, body,  agency,  or  department  or
     9  volunteer  fire  company, for searches or copies of documents to be used
    10  for a public purpose.  Provided further, however, that no fee  shall  be
    11  charged  to  a victim of a crime, to an individual charged with a crime,
    12  or such person's attorney where the searches or copies of documents  are
    13  related to the crime such person is a victim to or charged with.
    14    2.  Fees  for  searches  of  police  agency records. (a) The fee for a
    15  search which is made manually by the police agency shall be five dollars
    16  per request.
    17    (b) The fee for a search which is conducted by means of an  electronic
    18  medium shall be three dollars per request.
    19    3.  Fees for copies of documents and preparation for mailing. The fees
    20  for copies of documents, other  than  accident  reports,  shall  be  one
    21  dollar  per page. A page shall consist of either a single or double-side
    22  of any document. The fee for a copy  of  an  accident  report  shall  be
    23  fifteen  dollars. All copies of documents shall be certified at no addi-
    24  tional fee. Whenever a  search  of  records  of  the  police  agency  is

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD07900-01-5
        S. 4050                             2

     1  required  in conjunction with a copy of a document, the fee shall be the
     2  fee for the search as provided in subdivision two of this  section.  The
     3  result  of  such  search  will be the locating of the document, or if no
     4  document  can  be  located,  a  certification to that effect will be the
     5  result of such search. The fee  for  the  preparation  for  mailing,  if
     6  necessary, shall be two dollars per request.
     7    §  2.  This  act  shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
     8  have become a law.