Tallahassee.com
Sep. 7, 2013
Written by Sean Rossman
The Tallahassee Police Department scrubbed police reports of information — some of which it might be required by law to release — before handing them over to a Tallahassee Democrat reporter, but didn’t heavily redact the same reports when giving them to others.
As part of an investigation by the Democrat, the newspaper requested 10 police reports from TPD’s public-information officer during the month of June for crimes ranging from criminal mischief to burglaries and armed robbery. At the same time, newspaper staffers who didn’t identify themselves as media requested the same reports of active and ongoing police investigations from TPD’s public-records office for comparison purposes.
The investigation found TPD heavily redacted information from the reports given to a reporter at the Democrat, including victim information and other crime details, from the type of weapon used in a robbery to what exactly was stolen in a burglary. In some cases, TPD gave the newspaper police reports containing little more than basic details of the crime, like the time, date and place.
By contrast, TPD blacked out little information in police reports it gave to non-reporter staffers, sometimes removing only the Social Security numbers of parties named in the reports.
First Amendment advocates say access to comprehensive and reliable crime information is a linchpin of public safety. Without such information, people can’t make informed decisions about their personal safety.
TPD also may not have complied with open-records laws or its own general orders in redacting certain information given to the reporter. Other police agencies in Florida, including the Pensacola Police Department and the Orlando Police Department, released police reports with far fewer redactions.
Public agencies are required under Florida’s open-records law to make their records available to the public unless they are specifically exempt by statutes.
“To wrongfully withhold information in a public record is not a violation of the spirit and intent of the law — that’s a violation of the law,” said Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee.
TPD’s spokesman, Officer Dave Northway, said he redacted information from police reports in the interest of protecting ongoing criminal investigations. Department officials conceded some mistakes were made, and are taking steps to reconcile differences in what is released to the public. That training effort is likely to result in more information on active cases being uniformly withheld from public-records requests.
“I’m always going to protect the integrity of our case if you ask me for information,” he said. “That’s my job as a police officer, and that’s our job as a police department is to protect our victims.”
Police have some discretion
Florida’s broad public-records laws require law-enforcement agencies to release certain information in its reports, including the time, date, location and nature of a reported crime; the name, gender, age and address of a victim of a crime or an arrested suspect; the time, date and location of an arrest; and the exact crime charged.
The law, however, includes numerous exemptions, some requiring agencies to keep certain information confidential and others allowing them to make judgment calls about whether to release information involving active investigations.
Specifically, the law requires agencies to keep confidential the names and other details of victims of sex crimes and child abuse.
It also allows agencies to exclude from police reports criminal-intelligence information gathered to “anticipate, prevent or monitor possible criminal activity” and criminal-investigative information pertaining to a specific act. The exemption includes laboratory tests, reports of investigators or informants or any type of surveillance.
But statutes give law-enforcement agencies the discretion to release criminal intelligence or investigative information “in the furtherance of its official duties and responsibilities” or when it would assist in finding a person believed to be missing or endangered.
TPD, as part of its General Orders Manual, has its own policies on what kind of information can be released to the public, which generally mirror requirements in state and federal law. The department also has a public-records training guide that says police reports should generally include “everything up to the narrative” portion of the document.
All of the police reports given to the Democrat reporter by TPD redacted the narrative portion, in which the officer describes what happened in his or her own words.
However, other police departments in Florida routinely include such narratives. The Orlando Police Department and the Pensacola Police Department both gave the Democrat reporter police reports that included the narrative section as well as information on the victims. The reports involved open burglary and robbery cases.
“It’s our department policy to maintain a good working policy with the media,” said Sgt. Jim Young, public-information officer for the Orlando Police Department. “We always try to release as much as we can.”
Redaction differences
The Democrat found stark differences in how TPD responded to records requests from its reporter and its non-reporting staff. Here are some examples:
• A report from a June 20 home-invasion robbery on Belle Vue Way given to the reporter included one page, with numerous details redacted, including victim information. The report from the same crime given to a non-reporting staffer included four pages, along with most of the victim information and details on what was reported stolen.
• A report from a June 19 car burglary on Putnam Drive given to the reporter included one page, with the victim’s information redacted along with other details. The report from the same crime given to a non-reporting staffer included two pages, along with victim information and the exact manner in which the car was burglarized.
• A report from a June 17 armed robbery on Stone Road given to the reporter included one heavily-redacted page, with all victim information blacked out and other details removed, including the type of weapon used and the value of the stolen property. The report from the same crime given to a non-reporting staffer included three pages with all of the victim information except the Social Security number and details on the weapon and property value.
In some cases, TPD blacked out seemingly trivial information or information that wasn’t applicable to the specific case, including whether photographs were taken of the victim and whether the incident was a hate crime or not. In six of the 10 reports given to the reporter, all of the victim information was redacted.
Mistakes were made
In the case of one burglary report, Northway acknowledged he should not have redacted the victim information.
“Somewhere in there we made a mistake,” he said. “If we make a mistake, we make a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. I apologize for that, but it was certainly not intentional.”
Rick Courtemanche, attorney and legal adviser for TPD, said the agency’s public-records office didn’t redact as much information as Northway did in part because of the sheer volume of requests from the general public it receives. He said TPD receives thousands of records requests each year from walk-in citizens.
Courtemanche and Northway said some crimes allow victims to request that their personal information be redacted from police reports. Statutes allow such redactions in cases of sexual battery, aggravated child abuse, aggravated stalking, harassment, aggravated battery or domestic violence. However, Northway couldn’t say for certain whether any of the reporter-requested reports included requests to keep victims’ names confidential.
Tom Coe, who oversees the Police Department as assistant city manager for safety and neighborhood services, said he believes TPD makes every effort to follow public-records laws.
“I think our agency is trying to comply with the spirit of the law for sure,” he said.
But Coe also said TPD may need to conduct more training on public records.
Northway said TPD has begun retraining records technicians on what they can and can’t redact.
“So what you’re going to find I believe in the future is that reports are going to more closely reflect each other,” Northway said. “Fortunately, but also at the same time unfortunately for you, what that means is there is going to be less information coming out on those open/active cases.”
Real world impact
What information police departments release has real world public-safety implications.
“Crime is a concern to all of us and in the absence of accurate and timely information, people make things up,” said attorney Florence Snyder. “Is somebody injured? Is somebody dead? Why is that crime tape here? Am I in danger?”
An armed robbery in Summerbrooke Park in June led neighbors to wonder what had happened.
Kathy McKeon, who has lived near the park for 10 years, said she was shocked to hear of the robbery.
The Democrat was initially unable to receive information on who was involved in the crime through a public-records request, leaving McKeon and her neighbors to rely on word of mouth.
“I did want to know more, but I thought we just missed it,” she said.
The Democrat eventually got details on the robbery, after two suspects were arrested in July.
Snyder said open information from law enforcement is important to keep a community safe.
“I think it’s the most normal human reaction in the world to say, ‘What happened?’ ”