PROVIDENCE — The state Senate yesterday handed open-government advocates what they consider their biggest victory in a decade by approving a bill aimed at speeding the release of public records — including police reports.

The bill zipped through the Senate on a unanimous vote, and now heads to the House where spokesman Larry Berman yesterday said “its fate has not been determined by House leadership.”

The sponsor, Sen. J. Michael Lenihan, D-East Greenwich, said the bill was the product of “four years of effort and represents, I think, a significant tightening and restructuring” of the state’s existing Public Records Act. “It is in the access to public records that many of our public freedoms reside because it allows us as individual citizens to take and get at the materials by which decisions are made.”

If it becomes the law, the measure would take effect on Sept. 1. It would reduce the time that public agencies have to respond to public records requests from 10 business days to 7. It would prevent agencies from requiring those requesting the information to state the reason for their request.

With respect to arrest records, the police would be obligated to name anyone charged with a crime — and specify the charges — within 24 hours, but they, too, would have up to seven business days to release the narrative sections of arrest reports that detail the alleged crime. Arrest records were specifically addressed in the legislation because they are one of the most commonly requested public records, but police departments across the state vary in the amount of information they will provide and when.

The legislation would allow an agency an extra 20 business days to respond if it can “demonstrate that the voluminous nature of the request, the number of requests for records pending, or the difficulty in searching for and retrieving or copying the requested records is such that additional time is necessary to avoid imposing an undue burden on the public body.”

Under current law, the time limit can be extended by up to 30 days for what is broadly and ambiguously described as “good cause.”

Lenihan said several last-minute changes resulted from the attorney general’s concerns about releasing records in open criminal cases, and from the Department of Administration which worried about complying with large records requests in a week’s time.

Backers include Access RI, a coalition that includes the Rhode Island Press Association, the University of Rhode Island Journalism Department, Common Cause and the local affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.

kgregg@projo.com