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Police Chief Takes To Facebook To Complain About A Journalist Committing Journalism
Generally speaking, law enforcement is a closed shop. It usually takes diligent efforts by journalists to pry loose documents pertaining to misconduct or misbehavior. State laws tend to make this more difficult than it should be by granting law enforcement agencies tons of public records exemptions.
It's this strained relationship being highlighted in an incredibly ill-advised Facebook post by the Aurora (IL) Police Department, penned by police chief Kristen Ziman. As Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery pointed out on Twitter, it's not every day you witness a police department berate a journalist for practicing journalism.
For six months, a reporter at a local newspaper has been seeking essentially the complete case file of the tragic incident where a young man took his own life after exchanging gunshots with an Aurora Police officer in October, 2016. Both the reporter and the publication were especially interested in the officer's dash cam video of the traffic stop that began the entire episode in an apparent attempt to disprove its justification. (The publication wrote an editorial on March 26, 2017, calling into question the officer's actions and our explanation of events.) You can see the stop and events that led up to it on this post.
[...] While I understand FOIA's enhance openness and public transparency, many of the FOIA's this reporter files don't result in published articles. The hours the city has worked to fulfill her FOIA requests has cost taxpayers and resulted in police supervisors devoting their time on FOIA requests rather than concentrating on our crime fighting initiatives. The demand for trust between the community and the police is prolific. At some point, there has to be a trusting relationship between the media and the police.
[...] Finally, the Facebook post says "there has to be a trusting relationship between the media and police." No, there absolutely does not. This is completely wrong. Journalism is nothing more than stenography if it allows government agencies to steer narratives and coverage. Chief Ziman seems to think reporters should accept every statement made by police officials at face value, rather than seek underlying documents. That's not trust. That's obeisance. It's worthless in the context of transparency and accountability.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Sunday October 01 2017, @05:41PM
That's similar to the federal FOIA: If it's for media purposes or otherwise in the public interest, then the fees may be waived, otherwise it can cost you a bit. I learned all about that doing some investigation of something that seemed a bit off from the EPA - a friendly bureaucrat (and I mean that seriously) responded promptly and was happy to answer all my questions, free of charge.
And yes, getting stories that demonstrate that police are lying to the public and courts about something important are precisely what good investigative journalists covering the municipal beat ought to be doing. Simply recording whatever the government tells you isn't reporting, it's spreading propaganda.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.