FOIA Advice Concerning Denials Due to "Significant Interference" with the Agency's System

On August 26, 2024, the Office of Open Government (OOG) issued a D.C. FOIA Advisory Opinion (the OOG file number is # OOG-2023-006_AO). The advisory opinion addressed whether the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development's (DMPED) denial of a D.C. FOIA request was proper when DMPED denied the request as "unreasonable" because searching for, retrieving, redacting, and delivering such a large number of e-mails would “significantly interfere with the operation of [DMPED]’s automated information system."  

The Requester insisted that DMPED's FOIA Officer use specific key words as search terms to locate the e-mail records requested. Executing the search in this specific manner yielded a large number of unresponsive e-mail records and caused the agency's computer system to malfunction. OOG found that DMPED may properly refuse to undertake the search as requested, with the specific search terms, because of the interference with the agency's system. If supported by evidence of a significant interference, the courts may view the denial as proper. It cannot be a proscriptive denial. Notwithstanding, D.C. case law also suggests that DMPED should, in good faith, carry out the reasonable e-mail search with the search terms that its FOIA Officer and OCTO estimated would likely produce the requested records. This more reasonable search included targeted search terms that may produce responsive records and not disrupt DMPED's system.