by Mitti Hicks
July 23, 2025
Two plaintiffs filed a lawsuit, claiming that the police basis was violating Georgia’s open data legislation.
The controversial public security coaching heart proposed in Atlanta, often called “Cop Metropolis,” is on the coronary heart of why a Fulton County decide ordered the Atlanta Police Basis (APF) to launch practically 300 paperwork to the general public. Choose Jane Barwick dominated for APF to show over data associated to the Atlanta Public Security Coaching Metropolis, sometimes called “Cop Metropolis.”
The lawsuit all began with the 2 plaintiffs, the Atlanta Neighborhood Press Collective (ACPC) and Lucy Parsons Labs, a Chicago-based analysis group, requesting emails, APF board assembly minutes, and different paperwork. When APF failed to take action, the plaintiffs filed a lawsuit, claiming that the police basis was violating Georgia’s open data legislation.
“This courtroom concludes that APF was below an obligation to offer data to ACPC and Lucy Parsons Labs pursuant to the Open Information Act,” Barwick wrote in her 12-page order months after a two-day bench trial. “Below the authority defined on this order, no exemptions utilized.”
Why The Case on Atlanta Cop Metropolis Issues
In line with the Guardian, the lawsuit was the primary of its sort nationwide. Whereas the case centered on the Atlanta Police Basis, some say the decide’s ruling might have implications for whether or not police foundations are topic to open data legal guidelines.
Each main metropolis has a non-public basis that helps the police. A report from Police Foundations exhibits there are an estimated 250 nationwide. As a result of these foundations should not public companies, there have been questions round whether or not the nonprofits that solely assist a authorities company are topic to public document legal guidelines.
The decide’s ruling “opens the door to what we wish. It’s a information stone for getting data from police foundations, to allow them to’t be a black field,” Matt Scott, govt director of Atlanta Neighborhood Press Collective (ACPC), advised the Guardian. “A metropolis can’t use police foundations as a approach of getting round offering public data.”
Nonetheless, in keeping with the Atlanta Civic Circle, Choose Barwick clarified that the order doesn’t designate APF a public entity, which implies that all its data should not declared public and accessible.
It’s unclear if the APF will enchantment the decide’s ruling.
