If you request a police report, or other public record from the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, a report says you will be asked to provide identification, which is then used to perform a background check without your knowledge.

According to Charleston's Post and Courier, local Sheriff Michael Hunt said the deputies just ask for identification and will still give the records without an ID. Hunt said the checks find up to 40 people a month with outstanding warrants.

However, Jay Bender, an attorney for the South Carolina Press Association, says, "I think that's the most absurd thing I've ever heard of. That is harassment of citizens."

Bender, an attorney who specializes in cases involving the Freedom of Information Act for newspapers, explains. "I think that's just as intrusive as it could possibly be, and I don't know but that could be a civil rights violation. I don't think you can make an inquiry of a citizen unless you suspect that individual has committed a crime."

According to the Courier, the sheriff's office policy was discovered by a reporter from The Augusta (GA) Chronicle, who during a visit to the office Wednesday saw a clerk ask for a woman's ID and charge her $6 for a one-page police report.