How we got the story

The Atlanta JournalConstitution and Channel 2 Action News have spent most of this year investigating police shootings. When reporters started, no one in Georgia tracked police shootings or could say how many occur each year. The AJC and Channel 2 have obtained and reviewed thousands of pages of police and court records, as well as autopsy reports, death records, and media reports to perform the most comprehensive review of police shootings in Georgia to date. For this story on how police shootings are handled in the criminal justice system, reporters also contacted district attorneys across Georgia with questions about their treatment of such cases and the grand jury process. They interviewed law enforcement officials, grand jurors, family members and experts in grand jury procedure to explore Georgia’s unique privileges granted police and public officials who face potential criminal charges. Go to MyAJC.com to read an interactive presentation of this story, and find the AJC’s previous coverage of police shootings in Georgia.