ATLANTA (Georgia Recorder) — A late-emerging proposal in the Georgia Legislature would limit what the public can access in police reports and communications with state lawmakers.
The proposed changes to Georgia’s Open Records Act were tacked onto another bill, Senate Bill 12, late in the day Wednesday in the gatekeeping House Rules Committee, bypassing the usual legislative committee process and shortcutting public debate on the measure.
Under the new proposal, police departments would be able to shield almost all information about officers’ stops, arrests and incident responses, says Sarah Brewerton-Palmer, executive director with the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.
Additionally, the bill would create broad new exemptions to prevent public disclosure of the General Assembly’s activities, including communication with other parts of state government, she said.
Lawmakers are already largely exempted from the Open Records Act, but the proposal would go further in restricting access, adding records and data prepared for legislators to the list of off-limits information to the public.
“This is no time to weaken Georgia’s transparency laws, and it would be particularly inappropriate to do so this way — by tacking lengthy amendments onto a bill in the final days of the session, with no opportunity for public comment,” Brewerton-Palmer said.
The bill was changed and advanced out of the House Rules Committee meeting over the objections of Democrats who questioned the sudden urgency and raised concerns about how broad the proposed changes are.
“I’m a little bit concerned that nobody knows where this came from, and what is the urgency that brings us here on the 39th day at this hour?” said House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley of Columbus during the 7 p.m. meeting.
Rep. Rob Leverett, an Elberton Republican, described the changes as meant to “clean up” aspects of Georgia’s Open Records Act while there was a related bill on the move. The original bill had aimed to clarify that records requests should be filed with government agencies that created the need for the record and not private contractors or vendors – a response to a Georgia Supreme Court ruling last fall.
The bill was quickly sent back to the House Rules Committee but remains in play for Friday, which is the last day of the 2025 legislative session.
