Oregon Police Are Charging a Local News Outlet $2.5M for Records About One Cop
A Eugene-based publication requested records about a cop accused of misconduct. The city slapped it with a prohibitive fee. The post Oregon Police Are Charging a Local News Outlet $2.5M for Records About One Cop appeared first on The Intercept .
In August 2026, the local news outlet Double Sided Media in Eugene, Oregon, sent a public records request to the Eugene Police Department concerning potential misconduct by officer Justin Peckels between 2018 and 2026. The outlet sought records due to community complaints about Peckels, including an incident where he punched a resident in the face during a traffic stop.
The police department responded with a $2.5 million invoice, stating that searching for and processing the records would take at least 44,816 hours of staff time. The city justified the high cost by claiming it needed to search all records of all city employees, past and present. This response appears to be an intentional attempt to make the request so expensive that the journalist would drop it.
The police department has a history of using high fees to intimidate journalists, with similar cases involving the Department of Defense and Drug Enforcement Administration. While Oregon grants agencies discretion to reduce fees when disclosure benefits the public, agencies often ignore these provisions. This tactic is particularly galling when considering the city's investment in advanced technology, such as AI-powered license plate readers, yet fails to apply this technology to simple record searches.
Written by urgent.news from The Intercept's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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