Shielding Police Videos, Shining Light

Sunday Solutions — March 15, 2026

Good morning! It’s Sunshine Week, where groups across the country shine a light on the importance of public records and open government. We’re going to take the occasion to cheer great examples as we go. And, we’ve got news, of course. Let’s light it up!

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NEWS: PUBLIC SAFETY

Senate OKs barriers to get police body cam video

On Friday, the Georgia Senate passed Senate Bill 482 to create high hurdles to obtain police body cam video, likely shielding it from public view. The wording was tacked onto a bill that was meant to address heightened requirements to prevent abuse of police booking mugshots. It pits personal privacy of the accused against the public’s right to examine government use of force. The police videos would only be available through a notarized, in-person request that must specifically name everyone in the video, including bystanders. While this may seem like an inconsequential move, it’s not. If the video occurs during a protest or in a crowd, critics say it’s nearly impossible to get the record. And, most departments do not name police officers involved in shootings until later in the investigations. Body cam video has proven to be a valuable tool to identify police misconduct or to clear officers of accusations across the country. In Savannah, public release of bodycam video has been a crucial part of the prosecution of a former police officer in the shooting death of Saudi Lee. The 2022 incident happened on a city street with views of several others, including bystanders.

Here are two stories explaining how the bill changed to one that could shield police activity from public view:

• From Capitol Beat.

• From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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Georgia’s Red Book

To start learning and using Georgia’s Sunshine Laws, check out two resources from the nonprofit Georgia First Amendment Foundation.  
Their quickstart guide includes a short summary of how to ask for records and a video on writing requests well. The online version of the Red Book — a pamphlet bound in red — gives more details about what’s available, what’s open and important exemptions and fees. It’s easy to use and has all the tools to help you get info from your state and local governments and officials — except the legislature. The General Assembly has exempted itself from all open records laws.

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Sunlight = Citizen power

When we see government working toward helping its citizens understand and participate in the process, we cheer — loudly. 🎉 Here are some examples of local governments working to open their work so more citizens can see what’s up. After all, if people can’t see and understand what’s happening, conspiracy theories will follow.

☀️ Over the past few years, McIntosh County Commissioners have faced a lot of scrutiny over open meetings where visitors couldn’t bring in bags, recording devices or cameras and a lack of free access to streamed or recorded meetings. That’s over. The commission moved its meetings from the high-security courthouse to the open Darien City Hall a couple years ago. Now, their meetings are open online to all instead of a paid subscription to the local cable company. Everyone can view them on the county YouTube channel. Bravo!

☀️ Midway City Council is now livestreaming its meetings to Facebook. See them while you can — Facebook may be free, but it deletes live feed recordings after 30 days.

☀️ Walthourville City Council had nearly three dozen viewers to its live feed this past week. That’s a good number of people who wanted to see how and what its hired — elected — officials were doing.

In general, most public entities try to follow the law and do the right thing.

But sometimes there are clouds blocking the sun.

☁️ Glynn County launched a website redesign on Aug. 20 with the intention of making information easier for residents to access. As a result, website visitors can no longer easily access information about flooding, road design, police equipment procurement, contracts, or other decisions that took place from 2019 through the end of 2022. At the time, The Current published a story about it, but the archive is still not available to the taxpayers.

🌩️ Chatham County last week answered a request a month later for a basic police incident file with 23 of 27 pages fully redacted. We understand that some items may be shielded under the law, but these pages appear to be open according to the Georgia Open Records Act based on a few notations we can see on them. We’ve asked for an explanation based on our reading of the law, but we don’t have it yet.

❓ Our question for you: Have you been denied or had a hard time getting requested information from your public officials? If you have, let us know at staff@thecurrentga.org. Or, did you get what you need and want to celebrate? Send us your praise for them as well.

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NEWS: PUBLIC SAFETY

Water, water….nowhere…maybe

Since November 2022, three homes served by Liberty County’s Islands Highway fire station have burned to the ground mostly because the crews had no direct access to enough water to douse the fire. And, years later the area still doesn’t have fire hydrants or a storage tank to help and no timeline for help. Last week, a meeting to discuss a proposed reclaimed water plant to serve the quickly growing area presented a solution to use treated water from that plant for firefighting. Read Liberty County reporter Robin Kemp’s update on the plan for much-needed infrastructure.

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NEWS: GOVERNING

Watching the electeds

So a few other things have been going on this week, and here’s the lineup of updates you may want.

• Georgia lawmakers stall on tax credit for gun safes, defeat silencer bill: The state has significant firearms manufacturing operations with thousands of jobs tied to them. Setbacks for gun regulations are common, so this was a different move. From Capitol Beat.
• Capitol roundup: Lawmaker calls it quits, governor’s race brings fireworks, calls for gas tax suspension and more: Georgia Recorder looks at the political week and the ramped up sparring in the governor’s race by candidates in both parties.
• Warnock provision limiting the number of investor-owned homes gets through US Senate: The shortage of single-family housing gets a high-profile look at the federal and state levels. From Georgia Recorder.
• Proposal would require citizenship checks for Georgia families to access food aid: While officials request more funding to deal with a large systemic error rate, lawmakers want to add more to the process instead. From Georgia Recorder.
• Georgia House, Senate Republicans on parallel courses to reduce state income tax rate: Tax cut bills get pushed between chambers as lawmakers jockey for election year attention. From Capitol Beat.
• Can’t find a therapist on your insurance plan? That could be a violation of mental health parity law: The Georgia legislature has worked to address deficiencies in coverage for mental health challenges, but there are still holes to fill. From GPB News.
• Georgia legislative primaries see 537 candidates vying for 236 seats: After several election cycles with many, many unopposed races, The Current’s Maggie Lee finds that tide has turned as she looks at what’s changing and what’s not.

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EDITORS CHOICE: EXPLAINER

☕ Your second cup: Religion & democracy, plus film & AI

Two things this week to consider: 1) a Q&A on declining religious participation and its effect on democracy from a pastor who’s a social scientist; 2) and food for thought on AI and film as you prep to watch the Oscars.

Enjoy!

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