ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 25, 1997 TAG: 9704250035
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
Police in Virginia have too much discretion in choosing what unsolved crimes to make public. The basic facts, including the fact a crime has been committed, ought to be disclosed.
IF A STRANGER asked to use your phone, would you let him in?
What if you knew your neighbor had been robbed by a stranger who asked to use the phone?
If your answer to the first question is "maybe" and your answer to the second is "no," you now know why Virginia police have too much discretion in what crimes they choose to report.
The state's Freedom of Information Act gives police wide leeway in what records they must make public. When someone is arrested, you get to know. But unsolved crimes, including the simple fact that a crime has been committed or alleged, can be kept secret.
Now let us consider two cases involving the Roanoke County Police Department.
Last summer, Roanoke County investigators waited two months before telling the public that a boy had been sexually assaulted while camping on the Appalachian Trail. Isn't this information hikers might have wanted to know?
On Tuesday, a man posing as a maintenance worker sexually assaulted a woman at Sans Souci apartments in South Roanoke County. She opened the door to him after he said he was checking out a possible gas leak. She might have been more vigilant had she known that a woman in The Mews Apartments, next to Sans Souci, had been sexually assaulted in March after the assailant broke into her apartment.
But she couldn't have known. Information about the first crime wasn't released, apparently because of a weekend communication breakdown between police and media.
In the case of the boy who was sexually assaulted on the Appalachian Trail, police said they didn't release information earlier because they had a lead on the suspect. But the suspect, if he's the perpetrator, knows what he's done. The police are keeping no secrets from him. It's the public that is being kept in the dark and the public that is endangered.
Withholding some details may well be necessary to avoid compromising the investigation of a crime. But the public has a right - and need - to know the basic facts. In the short term, police need to recognize this. In the longer term, the General Assembly ought to ensure that police tell the public when it's in jeopardy.
Keeping the public unaware of danger neither protects nor serves.
LENGTH: Short : 50 linesby CNB