Georgia’s 18,000 police officers are getting a 38-page booklet that “very plainly” explains that law enforcement records are subject to public disclosure unless specifically exempted from release.
The Georgia First Amendment Foundation, the state press association and seven government organizations produced the booklet, “Georgia Law Enforcement and the Open Records Act.”
The guide was produced after “four lively meetings in five months,” according to the Georgia foundation’s fall newsletter.
The “police blue book” pulls together for the first time Georgia’s seven mandatory rules for confidentiality and 37 others that are labeled discretionary.
There’s a sample open records request and a chapter that clearly delineates the openness or closure of 10 items ranging from arrest reports, citations, in-car camera videotapes, reports from other law-enforcement agencies (all open) to probation and parole records (confidential and exempt).
Attorney General Thurbert Baker writes in a foreword, “We must always be vigilant to ensure that the public we are sworn to protect and to serve is also protected in its rights to know what its government is doing.”