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Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ted Sexton didn't want to release the front page of incident reports to the public, as Alabama's Open Records Act requires him to do. Now that a judge has ordered him to obey the law, Sexton wants to charge people $1 per page for copies of public records, which is reasonable, plus $38 an hour if he or his chief deputy take longer than 15 minutes to find them, which is simply outrageous.

Sexton's new policy is contrary to a state attorney general's opinion that public documents can be inspected for free. It also flies in the face of the spirit, and perhaps the letter, of the Open Records Act. The sheriff's intransigence is certain to waste even more public money and even more judicial resources on a matter that should be common sense.

It's a sad day when a designated law enforcer openly flouts a court order. Voters should remember this plan during the next election.