Submitted via IRC for guy_
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: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @09:06AM (3 children)
Complaint is about resources, AFAICT. The chief is complaining that FOIA costs them effort.
Maybe at that point the chief should agree to disagree. :) Yes, it costs money for FOIA. But that's the cost of transparency. It would be nice for transparency that all police files were opened on public site somewhere, but police doesn't want that and it probably would not be a good idea either - you know, witness names and all that. So all we have is this FOIA, where when someone wants access to these sensitive files, the names of the innocent can be withheld.
Now, if there was a court case about this incident, then FOIA probably wouldn't be necessary. Then again, court cases probably more expensive on all sides than FOIA.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @04:15PM
Government should be run like a company; we need to cut costs where-ever we see them and this 'transparency' is not a crucial thing so it should be cut. We cops are the good guys, you guys are the bad guys. When will this get through to you
criminalspeople.Oh, almost forgot: </sarc>
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday October 01 2017, @09:06PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday October 02 2017, @02:53AM
I can fill in Step 6 for you:
6. Put it 'in the cloud' and charge your customers again for it
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @09:47AM
Journalism is more than stenography.
It has devolved into profit-based infotainment and blatant propaganda.
But you already know that.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @10:06AM
In other news Russian journalism is called hacking the election ;).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GDX on Sunday October 01 2017, @10:16AM
[quote]At some point, there has to be a trusting relationship between the media and the police.[/quote]
First you have to win that trust, and I think that the police is doing very little to win that trust.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday October 01 2017, @10:52AM (1 child)
Actually there does need to be a trusting relationship between police and media:
The police must be able to trust that the media do their job, instead of simply making things up.
The media must be able to trust that the police won't interfere with their work.
Of course both have nothing to do with the complaint.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday October 02 2017, @02:30PM
The public must be able to trust that the police aren't worse than the criminals they are supposed to protect us from. The media should be instrumental in keeping the police honest. It's sad that anyone should have to keep the police honest. Honesty is something that was once taken for granted with little to no doubt. It is the police who have destroyed any trust the public and media might have. So the police have nowhere else to point the finger except at themselves.
Hint to police departments: If you're merely complaining that fulfilling FOIA requests is a resource problem, then streamline the process of fulfilling such requests. Have as much transparency as possible, not as little as possible.
It seems so obvious as to not need saying. Trust must be earned. Trust is easy to lose. Difficult to get back. It is astonishing that police departments don't seem to understand this.
Maybe instead of shouting "stop resisting!" as you beat someone to a bloody pulp, start shouting "stop distrusting!" instead.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @11:17AM (1 child)
The law [ilga.gov] has provisions for cost recovery:
It goes on to exempt the news media:
It looks as though the legislature wanted the press to have inexpensive access to public records. Chief Ziman is certainly entitled to say that that's a problem. Maybe the legislature will hear her and revise the law. Were I in her place, I like to think my highest priority would be minimizing the number of gun fights my officers got into, so that burdensome FOIA requests would be an infrequent occurrence. If a reporter's story could "disprove" my officer's, or my department's, statements about an event like that, I'd want to read that story. Maybe the chief meant "cast doubt on" rather than "disprove."
(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.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Sunday October 01 2017, @01:33PM (4 children)
One dark evening I heard gunfire outside. Had never heard that before. I peeped out a window (which may not have been the smartest move) and saw a police officer trotting down the alley with his gun drawn. What the heck was he doing, shooting at wildlife?
As I don't like bullets flying past my home and me having no idea why, I called the city police the next day to inquire and got absolutely nowhere. Wouldn't tell me anything. Said I could file a Freedom of Information Act request. Yeah, way to throw bureaucratic roadblocks at me. For all I know, I saw a trigger happy cop seizing on an excuse to shoot a few rounds, and they were determined to cover it up. If those punk police ever happen to want my help, they can write me a letter. Maybe I'll get around to answering it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @02:44PM
If you were talking to the police, you would want a lawyer. If you were arrested by the police, you wouldn't want them to tell everyone prior to conviction. There's a reason why you don't want the police to just answer questions about what happened in a way that avoids oversight. Think about the trust for the police that requires.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @07:40PM (1 child)
Why not call 911 right then and there and report it as a crime? Sure, it was (probably) a cop, but now it's logged in a particular way and they *might* give you more information in order to keep the peace.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 02 2017, @08:43AM
Cops come to your house with plenty of guns, bash your door in and shoot you dead. Turns out you were holding a phone, not a gun. Cops involved assigned to desk duty for a month or two. BLM make a few protests. End of story.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday October 01 2017, @08:59PM
Too bad you don't have security camera footage of the cop. You could respond to the letter with a copy of that.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @04:07PM
"many of the FOIA's this reporter files don't result in published articles. "
none of your business, you stupid pig.
"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 "
why do you have supervisors responding to foia requests? oh that's right have to guard the truth from the people.
"rather than concentrating on our crime fighting initiatives. "
crime fighting? yeah right. more like armed robbery on a mass scale.
"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."
no, you just provide the info requested of you and shut your fucking pie hole.