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Reply Posted on March 12, 2009
Question 1
February 28, 2009
I am so glad I discovered you. The following is a letter I wrote to Georgia’s Attorney General regarding my intention to retrieve police incident reports in my community and publish in my monthly magapaper. I would be happy to fax you the attorney general’s response — which was negative/not helpful. Maybe you can help me pursue. I welcome your response/feedback.
Cynthia Rozzo
# # #
To: Stefan Ritter
Sr. Asst Attorney General
Office of Attorney General
Feb 15, 2008
I am trying to access police incident reports to publish as a “Police Blotter” column in my monthly paper, EAST COBBER. It seems that the Cobb County Police Department does not have a process in place for allowing the public to access its public records/police incident reports. This concerns me, not just as a publisher, but also as a citizen. I am seeking your help to facilitate this process of allowing the public to view police incident reports at a reasonable cost.
I am forwarding e-mails from Sgt. Pierce and Lt. Alexander of the Cobb County Police Department. I believe the police department is obstructing Georgia’s Sunshine Laws by charging excessive fees for me to access information that is considered a public record. In an e-mail from January 10, 2008, Lt. Alexander concludes: “So, the weekly fee for the requestor would be a minimum of $573.46.”
I believe this to be an unreasonable amount of money for me to spend to in order for me to obtain public records. I have researched other police departments — from Woodstock, GA to North Fulton Police precinct to Minneapolis, MN — and they “redact” each police incident report as a matter of their already established internal procedures and thus, the police incident reports are ready for the public to access.
It is my understanding, the police incident reports are filed at Precinct 4 and a carbon copy is sent to Cobb County Police Headquarters. I suggested accessing the police incident reports at the East Cobb precinct rather than having to go to Cobb County Police Headquarters.
Bill Rowling, a Cobb County attorney I met with this Friday morning (2/15), stated the police incident reports are not “official” until they are submitted to Cobb County Police Headquarters and keyed in to their records management system. It is at this point that a clerk would be hired to sort through and pull Precinct 4/East Cobb police reports. Lt. Alexander also states in his e-mail, “Reports located at the precincts ARE NOT for public release.”
I believe it would be more cost-effective if a clerk could access /redact the reports at Precinct 4 instead of having a clerk sort through all of the police incident reports from all 5 Cobb County police precincts.
After discovering that the police incident reports are keyed in to a records management system (rms), I asked Mr. Rowling if the police clerk operating the rms could sort the police incident reports so that crimes with rape, HIV and/or juvenile delinquent codes would not be issued — even though case law does not allow the whole record to not be excluded from public access but just the names, but I just wanted to make it easier to get as many police incident reports as possible. Mr. Rowling stated that the police department was operating with a 1992 computer system and could not sort police incident reports like a database program.
That e-mail from Lt. Alexander is very discouraging. However, pursuant to Open Records Act (OCGA 50-18-70 through 50-18-76) all police reports, unless protected by law, are open for viewing to all residents of the State of Georgia. There must be an economical way for me to gain access to these reports. I hope you can help me find a solution to this.
I look forward to your response.
Reply from Thomas M. Clyde, a law partner in Georgia at Dow Lohnes PLLC
“Ms. Rozzo is exactly right when she says that under Georgia law, police reports are supposed to be open for public inspection.
“The Georgia Open Records Act requires law enforcement agencies to permit public inspection of ‘initial police arrest reports’ and ‘initial police incident reports.’ If an investigation is ongoing, police are permitted to keep their investigative file closed, but these initial reports setting forth the basic circumstances of the crime must be made available so that the public can learn about criminal activity in their community.
“The actions by the Cobb County Police Department appear to violate both the letter and spirit of the law.
“First, the charges that the Cobb County Police Department has proposed appear to be excessive. The Georgia Open Records Act requires agencies to provide copies of public records ‘in the most economical means available.’ Generally, copying charges may not exceed $.25 per page; hourly charges for gathering records may not exceed the salary of the lowest-paid, full-time employee who has the skill and training to perform the tasks; and no fee may be charged for the first quarter hour of an employee’s time. A weekly fee of in excess of $500 seems difficult to justify under this system.
“Second, the Cobb County Police Department appears to be improperly delaying access to incident reports. Under the Georgia Open Records Act, public records must be provided in a reasonable amount of time, which may not exceed three business days. And, the Georgia Supreme Court long ago rejected the notion that records are not subject to disclosure until a public agency declares them ‘official.’ So, the Cobb County Police Department’s policy of delaying access until reports from a particular precinct are routed through police headquarters and mixed together with reports from other precincts may also violate the law.
“If Ms. Rozzo continues to experience difficulty obtaining police incident and arrest reports from the Cobb County Police Department, she should consider filing a civil lawsuit pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 50-18-73(a). If she prevails in a civil suit, she may be entitled to recover attorney’s fees and costs. However, I also think it is possible that the Georgia Attorney General’s office is going to hear more complaints about law enforcement interfering in meaningful access to incident reports. Other citizens and newspapers are frustrated about the policies in Cobb County and other jurisdictions. Writing about this problem in the EAST COBBER and voicing concerns to the Georgia First Amendment Foundation and the Georgia Press Association may help galvanize interested organizations into asking the Attorney General’s office to take action.