In the days after Floyd’s death, then-Chief of Police Erika Shields became a visible law enforcement supporter of protestors. Then the Atlanta Police Department created its own reason for national outcry.

In a first for Georgia, a City of Atlanta employee is facing criminal charges following an order to delay a local tv-station’s public records request.

For a long time, public records and the Freedom of Information Act were lumped in as the old way of doing things: Who has time to wait on a request that could takes weeks or months or years when digital journalists measure deadlines by the hours? How could photocopies of documents be relevant for an audience we’re told craves nothing but video?

Our weekly series looking at the stories public records made possible, coming soon to a fax machine near you.