Public Safety, Emergency Management, and Records Management
Public safety questions combine emergency authority with the duty to preserve and produce records, including records created during the emergency itself.
Emergency management
- Georgia's framework is the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, O.C.G.A. § 38-3-1 et seq. Counties and cities maintain a local emergency management agency and director, adopt an emergency operations plan, and join mutual aid agreements.
- The governor may declare a state of emergency and suspend specified regulations; a county or city governing authority may declare a local state of emergency within its jurisdiction and impose measures such as curfews and evacuation orders.
- A local declaration does not require the governor's prior approval, but state and local actions must be coordinated and stay within the authority delegated by law.
- During a declared emergency, the price-gouging statute (O.C.G.A. § 10-1-393.4) bars unconscionable pricing of goods and services.
- Emergency purchases should follow the ordinance's emergency provisions with written justification.
Records management
- The Georgia Records Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-90 et seq., requires retention and disposal under schedules approved by the State Records Committee; the Georgia Archives administers the program.
- No public record may be destroyed without the applicable retention schedule or approved disposal authorization. A records request or litigation triggers a hold.
- Records include email, texts, voicemail, body-worn camera video, and social media messages about public business.
- Law enforcement: incident and arrest reports are generally open; active investigative files, confidential informant identities, and security plans may be withheld. Body-worn camera footage is subject to special statutory limits on who may obtain it and for what purpose.
Worked example
After a tornado, a county declares a local emergency and closes roads. A resident requests the emergency operations plan and the county's text messages from that week. Reasoning: the county may act locally, but the plan and texts are public records. Security-sensitive details such as access codes or tactical vulnerabilities may be redacted; the rest must be produced within three business days or a written denial must cite the exemption.
Traps that cost marks
Thinking local action requires prior state approval; destroying drafts and texts after an event; assuming an emergency suspends open records; confusing incident reports with investigative files.