Two members of the Eugene, Oregon, Police Department in a photo posted to the department’s Facebook page on Aug. 26, 2026.
Screenshot: Eugene Police Department via Facebook
How much does it cost
to get more information about a cop who punched someone in the face?
If you guessed anything lower than $2.5 million, you’d be wrong — at least according to the city of Eugene, Oregon.
In August, the local news outlet
Double Sided Media
filed a public records request for records about police officer Justin Peckels, which focused on potential misconduct between 2018 and 2026. Peckels has been the subject of community complaints, including for
punching a resident in the face
during a traffic stop, making the records vital for oversight and their release clearly in the public interest.
The city’s response is beyond belief. In its response to the request on Monday, the Eugene Police Department
claimed
searching for records and processing the request would take
at least
44,816 hours of staff time and cost approximately $2,484,599.04. (A separate request by the outlet for similar records concerning a former police officer, Eric Klinko, was met with a comparatively modest estimate of
$195,869.52
, for a grand total of nearly $2.7 million for both requests.)
The open invoice by the City of Eugene, Ore. dated Aug. 1, 2026, in response to Double Sided Media’s request for public records relating to a police officer accused of misconduct.
Screenshot: City of Eugene
“Once the City receives payment of $2,484,599.04 staff will continue processing your request,” the letter from the department’s public records division read. “If the actual cost of processing your request exceeds the amount you have paid the City, you will be required to pay the difference before the City will provide the records you have requested.”
Peckels’s file is either the largest in the world, or city officials have intentionally maintained their databases in such a way as to e
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