South Bay : COST OF REPORTS CUT

For the city of Redondo Beach, it appears that time is money, but not that much money.

The Redondo Beach City Council recently decided that the city was charging the public too much for copies of police and fire reports. Report-seekers were being charged not only for the time city employees spent retrieving and copying reports, but also for the time spent writing them.

That meant a copy of an arrest or police incident report could cost as much as $65. A copy of an arson report from the city Fire Department cost $30.

But council members said taxpayers were already paying police officers and firefighters to write the reports and should be charged only for time spent pulling and copying the report. They lowered the price to $10.