PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union is asking a Superior Court judge to fine the Providence Police Department for what it says is an intentional violation of the state’s open records law.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit yesterday, 34 days after asking the police department to turn over any documents relating to police use of video camera surveillance in public places. The state’s Access to Public Records Act gives public bodies 10 days to respond to such requests.

ACLU executive director Steven Brown said that yesterday’s lawsuit was one of at least six filed by his organization against the Providence Police Department in recent years.

“We’ve been successful in every open records suit we filed against the police department,” Brown said. “We shouldn’t have to file so many lawsuits. The open records law is very clear that public agencies have an obligation to respond to requests within 10 business days. There’s really no reason for any agency, including police departments, to ignore requests.”

The records request in question follows the police department’s recent installation of one surveillance camera at the basketball courts inside the Chad Brown public housing project.

Last month, at least 26 shootings were reported to the police, with 20 people shot, 2 of whom were killed — the worst month for shootings in Providence in at least five years. At least one of those shootings occurred at the perimeter of the historically crime-prone Chad Brown.

Police Chief Dean M. Esserman said yesterday that he did not intentionally ignore the ACLU’s request. He called Brown after learning the lawsuit had been filed.

“I apologized to him that we didn’t get back to him,” Esserman said of Brown. Esserman also informed Brown that no written policies exist regarding the use of surveillance cameras in public areas.

Esserman said the department has tried to be as open as possible with the public about the camera. The city held a community meeting with neighborhood residents before its installation. And the department put out a press release notifying the media of the new program.

“Our goal is to keep our children safe and stop the violence,” Esserman said. “And we tried to do that in the most open and transparent way we knew.”

The camera outside Chad Brown broadcasts directly to a screen inside police officers’ cars, and does not tape footage to be viewed later, Esserman said. The department hasn’t decided how long to use the camera, which is on loan from Motorola as part of a new communication system known as MESH, or Mobile Enterprise System.

Esserman noted there have been no incidents of violence in the 14 days since the camera was first installed.

Brown, meanwhile, said his organization didn’t plan to drop its open records lawsuit, despite Esserman’s phone call.

“Our attorney will seek a formal answer to the complaint from the city, where they can state on the record that they have no policies,” Brown said. “The ACLU has the resources to sue when we don’t get an answer. The vast majority of the public will simply give up.”

Yesterday’s lawsuit comes one week after the ACLU issued a report documenting widespread noncompliance with the state’s Access to Public Records Act by government agencies, particularly police departments.

speoples@projo.com