In a statewide survey, only 50 percent of sheriff's offices and 63 percent of police departments complied with the Open Records Act. Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker called the survey results surprising and disappointing. It is an open record under state law and should be released. More than just the media can be affected when officers refuse to release incident reports. Neighborhood associations sometimes try to get access to reports to determine if there's a pattern of crime in their neighborhood.
Most insurance companies require a police report be submitted in theft cases.
Everyone has a right to see the reports and get copies, but that doesn't mean it's easy to negotiate the law enforcement bureaucracy to get to the reports. Surveyors were questioned about who they were, why they wanted to see the reports, asked where they worked, sent from one office to another and even subjected to criminal background checks. In Jefferson County, sheriff's Maj. Charles Gibbons made copies of a surveyor's drivers license, asked him whether a sheriff in another county could vouch for him and called his boss at the newspaper. We don't try to deny them access as long as they have some kind of request, identify themselves and we know who they are.