A lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court alleges that the Atlanta Police Foundation violated the Georgia Open Records Act by failing to respond to records requests related to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which the foundation is contracted with the city to build.
The Georgia Journalism and Access Project at the University of Georgia School of Law’s First Amendment Clinic filed the suit on behalf of the Atlanta Community Press Collective and Lucy Parsons Labs, a Chicago-based organization that advocates for government transparency. Both organizations submitted requests in 2023 that remain unanswered.
“The theory that we’re putting forth is not novel by any means,” said Samantha Hamilton, an attorney with the Georgia Journalism and Access Project. The argument is that even though the police foundation is a private nonprofit, its role as developer of the controversial training center, also called “Cop City” by opponents, makes some documents in its possession subject to the open records law.
If courts side with the media organizations, it would mean more transparency about the cost and other details of the center, which is currently under construction despite an effort to stop it via voter referendum.
Georgia courts have previously held that nonprofit hospitals are subject to open records laws.
The suit argues that the Atlanta Police Foundation is performing a function of the city government and therefore must be subject to open records requests. Plaintiffs are asking the court to order the foundation to respond to the records requests and impose a $1,000 fine for each violation of the Open Records Act.
The suit quotes a section of the open records law that says that if a government agency contracts with a private vendor to collect or maintain public records, those records must be made available to the public.
“This is a project that both the city and the police foundation have asserted repeatedly is a project intended for the ‘public good.’ It involves the expenditure of taxpayer money and both local and state governments have passed pieces of legislation in support of this project,” Hamilton said.
The first ordinance passed the Atlanta City Council in 2021, authorizing Atlanta’s mayor to enter into a lease agreement with APF for land in South River Forest to construct a training facility.
Last June, the council voted to approve $67 million in funding, then in December both houses of the Georgia legislature voted in favor of nonbinding resolutions to support the training center’s construction.
“That’s not something we see with just any kind of public-private partnership. There’s a very concerted effort here meant to play a role in making sure that this project goes through,” Hamilton said.
Per the lease agreement’s terms, the APF will pay $10 a year to lease the land from the city. Once the training center is completed, the police foundation will then lease the facility back to the city for $1 million a year, with the city being responsible for upkeep and maintenance.
The police foundation has until the end of March to file a response to the lawsuit with the court. The foundation did not respond to a request for comment for this story. A spokesman for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens declined to comment.
