Media, police team up to write open records guide
| NMU | GEORGIA | Freedom of Information | Nov 22, 2002 |
Media, police team up to write open records guide
- A coalition of media and law enforcement organizations worked together to produce an open records guide for law enforcement officers.
A coalition of nine Georgia media and law enforcement organizations has produced an open records guide for the state’s law enforcement officers.
The Georgia First Amendment Foundation and eight other media and law enforcement groups worked together to produce the “Georgia Law Enforcement and the Open Records Act: A Law Enforcement Officer’s Guide to Open Records in Georgia.” The 40-page manual purports to help police officers navigate Georgia’s open records laws.
In an introduction to the manual, Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker said it is critical that law enforcement officers be “as well informed as possible regarding the laws governing the access” that the public has to government information.
“Open government is not merely a good way for government to operate, it is the only way for it to operate efficiently,” he said.
Manual entries include sections on various law enforcement records, juvenile records and media access to crime scenes.
“We’ve generated tons of calls from both media and law enforcement who want to get copies of this,” said Hollie Manheimer, the executive director of the foundation. She said the publication is the first of its kind in the country and that it “will definitely clear up a lot of questions for the media,” while helping clarify gray areas of access law.
The Georgia Law Enforcement and the Open Records Act: A Law Enforcement Officer’s Guide to Open Records in Georgia can be accessed online at http://www.gfaf.org/GFAF/blue_book_2002_web.pdf.
— GS
© 2002 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
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