Opening of MPD blotter to the public is worth celebrating

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The recently settled struggle between inmaricopa.com and Maricopa Police regarding whether the latter would release its daily operations reports to the media was not new, nor was it confined to one news organization.

No news organization, until July 1 when MPD opened its blotter to inmaricopa.com in the form of a three-ring binder available for viewing on site, has any news media representative had access to those specific records since January when the department went full time (see “MPD releases a few more details, advises media to ‘be careful'”).

Some have mistaken our reports announcing this breakthrough as whining about needing to get out of the newsroom to get access to information others supposedly already were getting in the same fashion.

In reality, inmaricopa.com is pleased to have broken ground on behalf of not only its readers, but all of the news media representatives – or general members of the public – who might have a reason to stop in, as we have already, to take a look.

We’re not sure that without disclosing the existence of the binder in a recent news report, however, than anyone would know it existed.

For that we can be proud.

And we’d like to thank those at the city and MPD who made this possible.

Before July, the blotter was sealed to public inspection. No one, and I mean no one, had local access to the sort of information that is routinely delivered by law enforcement agencies to the general public and the media across America.

It’s an American tradition for news organizations to publish what is sometimes referred to as “cop logs,” “police blotter,” or crime briefs, or at least have the option to inspect them to find out details government agencies just might not want the media to know.

In some communities, the police blotters are as popular as anything else in the news. In some cases, readers want to know which of their neighbors have been arrested on charges for driving while intoxicated. In others, they want to see if anyone has had a home broken into recently in a neighborhood where they are considering buying a home.

Until July, MPD kept this information out of the hands of Maricopans – unless they had some official purpose within the department or city to gain access.

Such a practice is not only immoral, it’s against the law. Not only state law. But federal law.

It’s just plain un-American.

So, why haven’t the other media gone after the same information?

Actually, they have.

While we can’t speak for what has gone on privately between MPD and our competitors, we do know that in a meeting in which local police invited the press to discuss ways in which we and they could work best as a team, representatives from The Maricopa Monitor, The Communicator and News 28, a television station based in Casa Grande, made a collective, clear request that this policy be changed.

We, as a group, made it clear that having access to police blotter is as basic to quality reporting as, well, arming officers with handguns is to its ability to enforce the law.

OK, we didn’t use those exact words. But our message was clear.

Our “patience” with their greenness as a department was running precariously thin.

It was the television reporter, Bea Lueck, who spoke out first. For that she deserves kudos.

Ben Norris, Doris Fightmaster and myself readily backed her up.

Sgt. Stephen Judd, a spokesman for MPD and the host of the event, explained that doing so “on the Web” was not possible. He cited the newness of the department, a lack of hands to do the work, time constraints and that he was following orders from his chief.

Forget about the Web, we said. Just give us the blotter. Now.

In short, our request was soundly denied.

Again, I can’t speak for the other media. But in January, within my first days or weeks on the job, one of my first conversations with MPD included a request to set up a system in which to check the daily blotter.

The response went something like this: We’re new. We don’t have a system in place just yet, but we will soon. Please be patient.

When pressed for a deadline when we could expect them to be ready to comply with the law, MPD said it would take about six months.

That placed the timetable squarely in July.

That’s why, when in late June one of inmaricopa.com’s journalists asked for information about a string of burglaries and was denied anything more than an excuse as to why MPD could not release it, we filed a formal public records request to view copies of all burglary reports from the Province subdivision within the past two months.

We also stopped by in person and requested to view the reports or police logs in person.

Again, we were sent back empty-handed.

A quick look at the calendar reminded us that MPD’s self-identified timetable had come due.

So we took the matter to a higher authority – the city managers – and more importantly, our readers.

Within 24 hours the blotter became available.

No, we aren’t getting it electronically like we did when the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office was handling such things during the first six months of the local department’s existence, even though PCSO did – and still does – handle dispatch calls on a contract basis for MPD.

The reports that the local media had been receiving from PCSO regarding Maricopa police calls came to a sudden stop once its distribution fell under MPD’s jurisdiction in January.

Meanwhile, the portion of blotter related to the Sheriff’s Office still comes through by email.

Someday, we hope to have MPD’s blotter returned to the same form of distribution, considering the system to do so is already in place.

What matters most for now, however, is not whether it’s electronic or in a binder we may check out. What matters is that the blotter is finally available.

It’s available to our competitors.

It’s available to you.

And that’s definitely something to cheer about.

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RuthAnn Hogue is the editor of inmaricopa.com and 85239 The Magazine.

File photo