Georgia Police Reports: How to Get a Crash Report or Incident Report

Georgia routes crash reports through a LexisNexis-built statewide system, while everything else, from incident reports to body camera footage, runs through the Georgia Open Records Act. That single statute, O.C.G.A. section 50-18-72, does more work in Georgia than in most states: it sets a need-based standard for crash reports, carves out initial incident reports from the general investigation exemption, and contains a narrow, easy-to-miss exemption for body camera footage recorded somewhere private.

This guide covers the crash report process, the incident report process, Georgia's embedded bodycam rule, and its separate 911 recording exemptions.

Information last verified on 2026-08-11. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How to Get a Copy of a Georgia Crash Report

Georgia routes crash reports through the Georgia Electronic Accident Reporting System, known as GEARS, which the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) designates as the state's official crash report repository. GEARS is developed and maintained by LexisNexis, and according to the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, roughly 95 percent of the state's crash reports are transmitted to it electronically by investigating agencies. What fills that repository is a statutory duty: O.C.G.A. section 40-9-31 requires every state and local law enforcement agency to submit to GDOT the original of any accident report it prepares or receives from a member of the public, within 14 days when the report is transmitted electronically.

Most requesters buy a report online through BuyCrash, the LexisNexis platform Georgia agencies use to distribute reports, or through GDOT's own mail process using its individual crash report request form. The fee is set by statute rather than by the department: O.C.G.A. section 40-9-30 requires GDOT or its third-party designee to charge $5.00 for each copy of an accident report. GDOT's request form states the same figure, adding $2.00 for a certified copy, and directs payment by money order or cashier's check rather than cash or a personal check. An agency selling through BuyCrash may add that platform's own processing charge, so confirm the total with whichever channel you use.

Who Can Get a Georgia Crash Report

Georgia's Open Records Act does not leave crash reports fully open on request. Section 50-18-72(a)(5) exempts individual Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Reports from disclosure "except upon the submission of a written statement of need by the requesting party to be provided to the custodian of records and to set forth the need for the report." The statute then defines that term. For purposes of the subsection, "need" means the person or entity asking to inspect or copy the report:

• (A) Has a personal, professional, or business connection with a party to the accident
• (B) Owns or leases an interest in property allegedly or actually damaged in the accident
• (C) Was allegedly or actually injured by the accident
• (D) Was a witness to the accident
• (E) Is the actual or alleged insurer of a party to the accident or of property damaged by it
• (F) Is a prosecutor or a publicly employed law enforcement officer
• (G) Is alleged to be liable to another party as a result of the accident
• (H) Is an attorney who needs the report for a criminal case, or for an investigation of a potential claim that a roadway, railroad crossing, or intersection is unsafe
• (I) Is gathering information as a representative of a news media organization, on a statement affirming that the use complies with Code Section 33-24-53
• (J) Is conducting research in the public interest, limited to accidents that occurred more than 60 days before the request and with the name, street address, telephone number, and driver's license number redacted
• (K) Is a governmental official, entity, or agency carrying out governmental functions or legitimate governmental duties

Read the two requirements together, because they are cumulative and not alternative. The lettered list is not a set of categories that excuse a requester from filing the statement of need; it is the list of things the statement has to establish. GDOT's own Individual Crash Report Request form makes the point concretely: the form is captioned "STATEMENT OF NEED," cites O.C.G.A. section 50-18-72(a)(5), and presents the lettered categories as check-all-that-apply boxes on the statement itself. An insurer, a witness, or an attorney signs the statement and checks a box; none of them skips the statement.

The statute does create one true exception, and it sits outside the lettered list. Any person or entity whose name or identifying information is contained in a Georgia Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Report is entitled, either personally or through a lawyer or other representative, to receive a copy of that report. The statute also bars bulk inspection or copying of reports absent a written statement showing the need for each individual report, which limits data mining style requests.

How to Get a Georgia Police Incident Report

For anything other than a crash report, requesters go to the responding agency's own open records unit under the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. section 50-18-70 and following. Atlanta Police Department's process reportedly routes routine single crash reports to BuyCrash or the department's Central Records Unit, while broader or bulk requests, including 911 audio and multi-incident pulls, go through the Open Records Unit. Confirm that department's current routing directly with its Open Records Unit.

Two rules that get described as one department's local practice are in fact statutory, and they bind every agency in Georgia. On cost, O.C.G.A. section 50-18-71(c)(1) caps search, retrieval, and redaction charges at the prorated hourly salary of the lowest paid full-time employee with the skill and training to do the work, and provides that "no charge shall be made for the first quarter hour." Copying is capped separately at 10 cents per page for letter or legal size documents. On timing, section 50-18-71(b)(1)(A) requires agencies to produce for inspection all responsive records within a reasonable time "not to exceed three business days" of receiving a request. That is a deadline to produce, not merely to acknowledge: where only some records can be located in that window the agency must release those within it, and where responsive records exist but cannot be produced in three business days the agency must, inside the same three days, give the requester a description of the records and a timeline for when they will be available.

Georgia's law enforcement investigatory exemption, section 50-18-72(a)(4), withholds records compiled for law enforcement or prosecution purposes while a case is pending, but it draws its own carve-out: the exemption applies to pending investigations "other than initial police arrest reports and initial incident reports," meaning the first incident report an officer files is not shielded by the pending-investigation exemption even while the underlying case continues.

That same paragraph closes with a limit worth knowing before requesting an arrest record. It provides that the release of booking photographs is permissible only in accordance with O.C.G.A. section 35-1-19, which bars an arresting agency from providing a mugshot where the photograph may end up in a publication or on a website that charges a fee to remove it, and requires the requester to submit a statement affirming that the intended use complies with that restriction. An initial arrest report being outside the pending-investigation exemption does not mean the booking photograph attached to it comes out on request.

Body Camera Footage in Georgia

Georgia has no standalone body camera statute, but it is not a state where bodycam footage sits entirely outside the public records law either. Section 50-18-72(a)(26.2) creates a narrow exemption for audio and video recordings from devices used by law enforcement officers in a place where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, when there is no pending investigation. That footage is closed to the general public, but the statute opens it to a defined list of eligible requesters, each of whom must submit a sworn affidavit establishing eligibility: the estate representative of a deceased person shown in the recording, the parent or guardian of a minor shown in the recording, the accused in a related criminal case, a party to a related civil action, or any of their attorneys. Footage recorded somewhere without a reasonable expectation of privacy, or connected to a still-pending investigation, falls outside this narrow carve-out and instead sits under the general (a)(4) pending-investigation exemption described above. For the state's fuller legal picture, see Georgia's body camera laws.

Georgia's 911 Recording Exemptions

Georgia separately protects certain 911 recordings. Section 50-18-72(a)(26) generally exempts records revealing a 911 caller's identity, address, or phone number, unless the requester is the accused or the accused's attorney. Section 50-18-72(a)(26.1) goes further for a specific category: audio recordings capturing the distress or cries of a caller who died during the call, or who was a minor at the time of the call, are exempt except to the same kind of sworn affidavit eligible list used for the bodycam carve-out above, a deceased caller's estate representative, a minor caller's parent or guardian, an accused in a related criminal case, a civil action party, or their attorneys. For the general rules on recorded emergency calls, see are 911 calls public records.

Corrections and Practical Notes

Georgia's GDOT-523 form appears to function as a correction or supplement form for crash reports, but its content could not be independently verified for this guide. If a Georgia crash report needs a correction, contact the investigating agency or GDOT directly rather than relying on an unverified form description.

Related Resources

Police Reports by State covers the full 50-state picture. See also how to file a police report, how to read a police report, are police reports public, how to request body camera footage, Georgia bodycam laws, Georgia car accident laws, Georgia public records laws, and Georgia court records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Georgia's police report and public records process. It is not legal advice. Fees, portals, and eligibility rules change; verify current details with the agencies named above or a licensed Georgia attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-11. Fees and portals reflect their published status as of August 2026.