We Are Not Alone: Brookhaven Acknowledged Open Records Violations Over Police Fees in 2016
Ten years before I asked Brookhaven for police records, the City had already signed an agreement with the state acknowledging Open Records Act violations over what it charged for them, accepted a $500 fine, and cut the fee from $37 to $18.
| Date and independent reporting | What happened, including the outcome |
|---|---|
| June 9, 2016. Dionne Kinch, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | The AJC reported that the Brookhaven City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with the state “to acknowledge the city’s violations of the Georgia Open Records Act” over what it charged for copies of certain police records. The City accepted a $500 fine and cut the fee from $37 to $18. |
| June 21, 2017. Georgia News Lab, with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 | Student reporters asked metro police departments for their use of force policies and measured each response against Georgia’s three business day requirement. The published results list Brookhaven Police at 6 business days. |
| July 7, 2020. Erin Schilling, Rough Draft Atlanta | Rough Draft Atlanta reported that the City first demanded a fee of more than $500 for police use of force reports. The Brookhaven Police Department later agreed to provide the use of force and discrimination reports at no cost. |
Brookhaven Records Roles: What the City and Police Department Publish
Brookhaven’s adopted policy names the City Clerk as Open Records Officer, but it separately excepts Police Department requests from the ordinary step of forwarding requests to that Officer. The Police Department says its Records Unit is responsible for filling police records requests. These are the published offices, and the people who hold them.
| Person | The role the City’s own pages give the office |
|---|---|
| Lonnie Napier, Major, Administrative Division Commander | The City names him manager of the Administrative Services Division, which includes the Records Unit, and says that Unit is “responsible for filling open records requests and maintaining police records.” (City of Brookhaven, read October 17, 2026) |
| Sandra Bryant, City Clerk | The City’s 2015 Open Records Policy designates the City Clerk as Open Records Officer, with the Deputy City Clerk as backup. The same policy separately excepts Police Department requests from the usual forwarding of requests to that Officer. (Open Records Policy, adopted July 7, 2015) |
| Christian Sigman, City Manager | The same policy says requests sent for legal review must be approved by the City Manager or Assistant City Manager. (Open Records Policy) |
| Brandon Gurley, Chief of Police | Leads the Brookhaven Police Department. (City of Brookhaven, Command Staff) |
In their own words. In 2015, before he was Mayor, John Park said Brookhaven should be “looking for reasons to release and not reasons to withhold” public records (Joe Earle, Rough Draft Atlanta, June 26, 2015). In an August 10, 2026 interview, Chief Brandon Gurley said “standing up for my people doesn’t mean defending everything they do without question” (Police1). Park spoke in 2015, as a Councilmember, about making City records public. Gurley spoke in 2026 about how he holds officers to standards. The rest of this page is what happened when I asked.
How to read this section. The 2016 and 2020 reporting concerns requests made by other people, before my 2026 correspondence. Neither report is a finding about any official named here, and neither is a finding about how the City handled a request of mine. The officials above are named because the City’s own published rules give their offices a role in records requests. A role is not proof of who decided any particular request.
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