The Atlanta Police Foundation (APF) has released nearly 300 pages of records concerning its involvement in the controversial police training center known as “Cop City.” This release comes in the wake of a historic ruling from Georgia that forced the foundation to honor Georgia’s open records law. Together, the ACPC and Lucy Parsons Labs have brought an innovative and historic lawsuit. It seeks to rein in police foundations by making them more transparent and accountable.
The APF didn’t just sit back and wait—they actively lobbied to defeat activist-driven initiatives. They sought to stop the nearly $109 million construction of Cop City from being subjected to a citywide referendum. In late 2023, organizers successfully gathered 116,000 signatures to meet the threshold necessary for a public vote, highlighting the contentious nature of the project. In response, the APF sprung into action to bolster community efforts by deploying 40 officers to the training center. They deployed eight cameras throughout the center’s sprawling 171-acre campus.
The court order compelling the release of documents indicated that the APF was “under a duty to provide [the] records [ …] pursuant to the Open Records Act.” We served these documents on the plaintiffs on July 1, 2023. Among them were stunning revelations regarding the lobbying efforts to reverse public sentiment and crush the referendum. The last eight pages of the released document are largely nothing more than redacted emails. These emails could be directly at odds with the judge’s February order requiring full transparency.
Rob Baskin, an APF spokesperson, called the issue a misstep that “would seriously undermine the credibility of these city officials. He stated that opposition efforts “would, at best, delay and could derail the project’s financing,” and he emphasized that such actions might “almost certainly [result] in the loss of credibility of City Council and its members.”
The APF is not an isolated case, but part of a larger movement. According to a Foundation report, more than 250 of these police foundations are at work across the United States. Meanwhile, these philanthropic foundations enable police departments to continue to do harm, while eroding police accountability and transparency across the country. The ACPC’s lawsuit against the APF is part of a larger trend towards increased public access to records concerning police foundations.
Scott, a member of ACPC, highlighted the significance of early access to these materials. He thinks it might have made a huge difference in turning public opinion against Cop City. “If we had known, and gotten these documents when we asked, there was a potential for immediate impact on public opinion,” he noted.
Matt Scott, the T4A’s partner with ACPC, celebrated this legal victory. In his eyes, it’s the first step towards making police foundations across the country more transparent. He stated that the outcome “opens the door to what we want. It’s a guide stone for getting records from police foundations, so they can’t be a black box.” He further asserted that “a city can’t use police foundations as a way of getting around providing public records.”