Richard T. Griffiths of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation asked Georgia legislators this week to take a deep breath, tap the brakes, and reconsider the “vast sweep” of Senate Bill 215, which would require redaction of names and property ownership from state data bases of law enforcement personnel, politicians, and hundreds of thousands of other government officials.
Lawmakers didn’t slow down, and the legislation sponsored by Sen. Matt Brass, a Newnan Republican, swept through the Senate with a 53-0 vote Thursday with no debate. It is now headed to the House which could sign off on the bill in the coming weeks, an alarming development for transparency advocates.
“The Georgia Open Records Act already provides broad protection to public employees’ personal information and records that specifically identify public employees in their jobs to close their offices, but neither of these bills will prevent information already commercially online and available from other states from being disseminated in Georgia,” Griffiths said. “We know these bills are well-intentioned. We know that there are potential problems here, but we do not believe that these bills as written will solve these problems without potentially creating chaos.”
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