It's an age-old debate: could scrutiny of cold case files help move the cases, or does it undermine investigations, even if those investigations have been dormant for years?

Lawyers tangled in the Georgia Supreme Court on Monday about a case that could force police departments to release documents in unsolved crimes, a move which authorities said would undermine their investigations.

The argument deals with the police use of the term "pending investigation" to refuse media requests for public information, a term that open records lawyers say is being abused by authorities to withhold public information.

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