Naming names in police reports
They call it Monday Morning Quarterbacking -- questioning people who make judgment calls.
There's certainly been a good deal of Monday Morning Quarterbacking going on regarding our decision not to publish the name of a woman caught in a sex act in a public park late Friday afternoon. Some people agree, most are critical of the decision.
When a person makes a decision and doesn't listen to critics, he's considered stubborn and arrogant, or plain stupid for seemingly not listening to reason.
When a person responds to criticism and reverses course, he risks being seen as weak, as caving to public pressure.
The fact of the matter is, if we published the woman's name, there would be people who would be critical of the decision. They call it flip-flopping.
These are some of the no-win situations one faces when involved in a pursuit fraught with judgment calls.
In the end, the only analysis we make is to weigh our decision based on our established policies and past practices.
The Batavian has a policy of publishing the name of every individual arrested, detained or cited by local law enforcement when the name is released to the local media (exception being 17 and under charged with minor infractions and crimes).
(It's worth noting, not every arrest made by either the Sheriff's Office and the Batavia Police Department finds its way into a press release. I sometimes get private e-mails accusing us of showing favoritism because we didn't publicize this or that arrest, but we can't publish what we don't know about.)
In the past year, I've had to publish the name of a friend arrested on a pretty serious charge, and there have been at least two local business owners I know whose names have shown up in the "blotter" (as readers call it, though what we publish is not technically a blotter).
(One notable twist on the sex-in-the-park case: the Batavia PD did not initially release the name of the people involved. The Batavian called and requested the names and it was only after learning from the PD that the woman had children that we decided not to publish the name.)
The idea of having an "all names published" policy is to avoid a perception of favoritism.
Nobody should be able to call me up and successfully lobby to keep his or her name out of the Police Beat. If I do a favor for one person, then why not do a favor for any or all persons arrested?
On Friday morning, I got a call from a young woman who was upset because her name, age and street name were published in the Dave Matthews concert arrest report. She said she was worried about some rapist finding her.
My thought was, "there's lots of ways that some rapist could find you, not the least of which is your name appearing in an arrest report -- it's not my place to predict the consequences of the publication -- I don't have a crystal ball." Also, I thought, "I bet you're really more worried about your parents seeing it." But I didn't say anything more to her than, "Thanks for expressing your concern."
I consider publishing the reports of arrests, and the results of as many court cases as we can follow, to be an important public service. We don't do it to embarrass anybody. The power of the state to detain people is a power that should not go unchecked. It's important to keep tabs on what local law enforcement is doing, both to be as informed as possible and because a good deal of our tax dollars go to law enforcement.
After giving it much thought -- listening to our critics, talking with Billie, considering previous cases -- I've come to the conclusion that our decision Friday night not to publish the name was a mistake.
While I'd like to believe my intentions were noble, the larger consideration is that The Batavian simply shouldn't be in a position of playing favorites on arrest reports. By the standards of past practice, and the foreseeable complications that could arise in the future if we make exceptions, we should publish the name. It's not our place to try to predict the outcome of what publication might mean.
One thing I've learned from many years in journalism is that some of your decisions will be unpopular. Critics are everywhere. The only thing you can do is the best you can. You will make mistakes, but when you do make mistakes, the best thing to do is admit it, correct it and move on.
The previous post has been amended to include the woman's name.
