Tuesday morning, Albany police staff refused to provide narrative portions of initial incident reports to an Albany Herald and WFXL reporters who requested the reports.
Narratives, generally the last page of multipage incident reports, explain the circumstances of the event and provides a context for police action.
Before Tuesday, police readily shared incident reports in their entirety.
Albany Police Chief James Younger was out of town Tuesday, APD spokesperson Phyllis Banks said, but was working with Albany City Attorney Nathan Davis to provide a written response to The Herald’s inquiries about the policy change. Younger was in town later in the day and attended an Albany ARC meeting, but no response was received Tuesday evening.
Davis said earlier in the day by phone that it was his opinion that the initial incident report was only the portion of the document that includes the header “incident report,” excluding the narrative portion, but said that the city generally errs on the side of disclosure.
“It’s mandatory and not discloseable,” he said. “The only thing that would be held, however, is if, and only if, it held information vital to the prosecution of a case.”
Davis pointed out that at the top of the narrative form is a header that says “narrative for investigation/prosecution” and is meant for investigators, not the public.
Tuesday, reporters were provided with the remainder of the reports — sans the narratives — which generally include the names and addresses of victims, witnesses and suspects, along with other case information about stolen or damaged items.
The Georgia Press Association, the largest association of newspapers in the state, says on its Web page that even if an incident report held vital information for prosecution, the full document must be disclosed to the public.
“If the initial arrest or incident reports contain confidential law enforcement information such as the names of confidential informers, a description of confidential investigative material or information that would endanger the life or physical safety of a person, the law enforcement agency may redact that portion but must produce the remainder.”
Tuesday, the Albany Herald e-mailed a copy of an Albany Police Department incident report — complete with narrative — to David Hudson, general counsel to the GPA. He said documents such as the ones sent to him must be disclosed.
“The ORA (Open Records Act) is explicit that initial incident and arrest reports are public documents (OCGA 50-18-72(a)(4>. There is no provision in the Act or in Ga case law that allows the APD to withhold any of those reports- whether narrative or not,” he said.
Hudson’s legal opinions were used to create the state’s guide to open records, “Georgia Law Enforcement and the Open Records Act: A Law Enforcement Officer’s Guide to Open Records in Georgia,” which is approved by the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, the GBI, the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police and the GPA.
That pamphlet specifically points to law enforcement’s requirement to produce initial incident reports and public arrest records regardless of whether there is an active investigation or not.
