Thread by @CrimeWatchMpls

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As you may know, @CrimeWatchMpls is a volunteer effort. All of the research and reporting we've provided for over 11 years has been done for free as a public service -- because we believe people deserve information that's sorely lacking from authorities & mainstream #MNmedia.

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No entity or agency pays us to do this. And while it's our passion to provide all of this information for free, it's not free to produce. There are real costs involved and absorbed by us (equipment, scanners, software, electronic storage and costs for obtaining public data).

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In the past we've been able to obtain occasional criminal complaints from various counties or agencies for our reporting (when often a courthouse visit would be required).

As volunteers, we don't have "staff" or resources to be running to the courthouse for documents.

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Our case reporting has increased significantly over the last 2-3 years requiring access to much more information and more court documents.

And you've responded with great appreciation for our informational output, which you often can't find anywhere else.

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In the last year, Minnesota Courts began rolling out online access to criminal complaints and court documents as an enhancement to access. Which has been great.
However... as the roll out proceeds, MN Courts plans to begin charging $8 per online document downloaded.
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This week alone, @CrimeWatchMpls downloaded 19 documents from the court website for our research in reporting the information we've posted this week - Much of that info was exclusively reported by us and not reported anywhere else.
In the future that would cost us $152.
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That's excessive and simply not a sustainable cost to absorb for volunteer independent media on a weekly basis.

This amount of document research and download by us is typical, and often exceeds this amount in any given week.

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In comparison, the federal PACER case access website charges .10 cents per page download, & a user is not charged if they don't exceed $30 in fees accumulated per calendar quarter.

So even for an 8-page criminal complaint, the federal fee would only be .80 for the document.

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So, we will be at a crossroads very shortly in our ability to provide the critical and exclusive information and reporting that you're not getting anywhere else, and which you've come to expect and value from us.

We need your help, your action.

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Please find your #MNLEG and #MNSEN legislators, below. Call or email them and ask them to introduce or support legislation to reduce or eliminate the fee of $8 per doc set in MN Statute § 357.021, subd. 2(2). At the least, to be in line with PACER.

gis.lcc.mn.gov/iMaps/district…

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Tag the handles of your #MNLEG and #MNSEN reps on this thread. Tell them you value the exclusive and independent research and reporting provided by @CrimeWatchMpls.
Tell them independent media like us deserves affordable access to public records to do this volunteer work.

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Additionally, we thank our followers who've generously chosen to help us cover costs & sustain our volunteer work, whether it's with a one-time donation to our tip jars or through a sustaining pledge of support on our Patreon page. It's so appreciated.
linktr.ee/crimewatchmpls

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@threadreaderapp please unroll.

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Here's a link to this entire thread that you can share to anyone outside of Twitter.

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1484617…