Judge rules ‘Cop City’ foundation must comply with news outlet’s records request

A Georgia court on May 30, 2025, ruled in favor of a local news outlet in its lawsuit to access records related to an Atlanta-area public safety training center.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge sided with the Atlanta Community Press Collective and Lucy Parsons Lab — a Chicago-based think tank that advocates for government transparency — in their suit against the Atlanta Police Foundation, which alleged that the foundation illegally withheld records about the training center, referred to by critics as “Cop City.”

The decision marked the culmination of a long-running legal fight over records access in Georgia that centered around the question of whether a private foundation engaged in public business can selectively withhold records based on the identity of the requester.

Filed in January 2024, the lawsuit was related to 15 records requests filed by the groups that sought emails about the training center’s construction on city-owned land, as well as board meeting minutes. Citing its status as a private nonprofit, the foundation refused to hand over most of the records.

In April 2025, Dave Wilkinson, the foundation’s CEO, testified in court that the news outlet had no right to request the organization’s records. He argued that the foundation was not subject to the Open Records Act and that media coverage might turn the public against the project and “terrorize” the companies building it.

But the ACPC argued that the foundation isn’t just another nonprofit, because it exclusively supports the Atlanta Police Department. Cop City, meanwhile, received a significant amount of public money: The Atlanta City Council approved $67 million in public funding for the $115 million training center, which opened in April 2025.

Since the foundation led a development that relied on taxpayer funds and city land, the news outlet argued the public should be able to review that spending and other decisions. The ACPC also noted that the foundation had released the documents to other news outlets.

In May 2025, Judge Jane Barwick decided in favor of the ACPC and Lucy Parsons Lab. “This Court concludes that APF was under a duty to provide records to ACPC and Lucy Parsons Labs pursuant to the Open Records Act,” Barwick wrote in her ruling. “Let the record also be clear that the identity of the requester does not determine whether records are characterized as public.”

ACPC welcomed the decision. “We believe in the importance of transparency and look forward to a thorough review of the documents that APF has fought so hard to keep hidden,” it said in June.

ACPC’s Executive Director Matt Scott told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the foundation turned over the documents in July. Some of the emails were redacted, but the APF released the unredacted emails after the ACPC pushed back. ACPC subsequently published the documents.

The foundation did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.