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Dear valued Decaturish subscribers,
This month, our community learned about a tragedy involving a local family. We learned that local attorney Henry Frantz, Jr., had died in a scuba diving accident. We also learned that, in the process of settling Frantz’s affairs, his family found the remains of his son in a treehouse in the backyard.
Our initial story left more than a few readers frustrated with the story's unanswered questions. But many of those frustrated readers may not realize that I had those same questions. The information I published was all I had.
Public safety officials declining to share all the information they have is so commonplace for journalists who cover public safety that it’s barely worth mentioning in our articles. I encourage you to read any crime stories we’ve written over the years. Articles that are 300 words or fewer are typical. That’s not because of a lack of curiosity or inherent laziness of the reporters involved. It’s because public safety officials in Georgia often don’t give us much to start with. Georgia law allows investigators to withhold information from the public that they feel might jeopardize an investigation.
There's a common misconception—largely based on crime shows and documentaries—that the police provide all the information about any incident because they want to solve cases.
That's just not so.
I'm not here to bash any particular police communications department. We work with all of them, and the only truly difficult agency to deal with was DeKalb County, but it has improved recently.
This is about the decision made at the outset of most investigations not to release basic information about an incident, even when it involves a death. Most police agencies will tell you it’s to preserve the integrity of an investigation. They’ll keep telling you this long after it’s become apparent the investigation isn’t going anywhere.
To give one example: state and local police have been fighting me for going on two years now over records related to an arson at a gender-affirming clinic in Decatur. It appeared to be a crime targeting some of the most vulnerable members of our community that occurred in an area where, one reasonably presumes, there was at least one security camera that caught a glimpse of something.
The case has effectively gone cold due to what I assume is indifference. After all, acknowledging violence targeting the transgender community undercuts the narrative fueling anti-trans bills speeding through the Legislature. The odds are high that this arson case can be solved. But to this day, local and state police refuse to release the records that could help the public identify a suspect, citing an ongoing investigation exemption in the open records law. They'll cite this exemption until the end of time until some judge tells them they can't.
This is no surprise for our new owner, Appen Media Group. They’re currently tangled with the Sandy Springs Police Department over its refusal to release anything other than one or two-sentence summaries about crimes that occur there. Appen Media is finding some success in the courts, but it has been a long, costly slog.
Transparency in crime reporting seldom happens without a fight between reporters and public safety officials. Our readers don't often see those fights over releasing information play out, but it's reality for reporters covering crime in Georgia. It puts the burden of providing answers to the public’s questions on us, and those are unfortunately answers we do not always have.
Readers frustrated by a lack of information about public safety stories should take up this issue with the state Legislature. Legislators crafted and approved this open records law, which gives police departments discretion to keep secrets in perpetuity unless there's a criminal trial. We're just dealing with the consequences of a poorly written section of that legislation.
Until the law changes, we’ll keep fighting the good fight and trying to shine a light on public safety news in our community.
We hope you will enjoy this month’s edition of the Decaturish Insider. Once again, our team has given us their best.
I remain your humble and grateful community news editor.
– Dano
Dan Whisenhunt, Editor and Founder
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