[Scan-DC] Sheriff candidates commit to improve office's openness

[Dave]

  I wonder if any one asked him to provide the laws he is referring to? 
That sheriff is so full of BS it is unbelieveable. I have worked around 
and have family that are police officers all my life. There are very 
reasonable concerns for some encryption in police communication. But if 
not for the availability of cell phone video many cases of police wrong 
doing or questionable practices would never be known. It is a very 
difficult time to be in law enforcement but many times they bring on 
their own problems. If anyone believes that no police officer has ever 
lied does not really live in today's world. I agree that the media can 
certainly be a pita but as this sheriff believes, living in a police 
state is the right thing for our well being. Might as well live in 
Russia or China. I think that Florida leads the country in encrypted 
police communications and in Jacksonvilles case fire encryption also.

   Sad commentary on life as we know it today,

Dave M.

On 4/12/2015 01:52, Alan Henney wrote:
> Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville)
>
> March 16, 2015 Monday
>
> Putting focus on transparency;
> Sheriff candidates commit to improve office's openness
>
> BYLINE: Topher Sanders
>
> SECTION: Pg. A-1
>
> LENGTH: 1189 words
>
> All the candidates to be the next Jacksonville sheriff have committed to improving transparency and openness in the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
>
> Prior to 2010, radio calls over police scanners were common sounds in newsrooms throughout Jacksonville. Reporters would rush from scene to scene based on what they heard on the scanners. They could also review police reports about everything from burglaries to homicides in a media room inside the sheriff's headquarters in downtown.
>
> A lot has changed since then in the way the media learns about police activity so it can inform the public about crime and trends.
>
> The changes:
>
> - In November 2010, an appeals court sided with the Fraternal Order of Police that the public should be shut out of Response to Resistance Board hearings. Those are the hearings conducted after an officer shoots a citizen. Sheriff John Rutherford legally opposed the police union's effort but was unsuccessful in keeping the hearings open to the public.
>
> - In July 2011, Rutherford's office took police scanners away from the media, citing privacy and budgetary concerns at the time. The office also said the media interfered and caused safety issues by arriving early at crime scenes. Rutherford said last week he was also relying on an attorney general's opinion.
>
> - In May 2013, the office eliminated the longtime practice of providing the media access to incident and arrest reports, commonly called the blotter. The agency said privacy and identity theft concerns drove the decision.
>
> - In February of this year, the office shuttered a "Calls for Service" website over concerns for officer safety, largely based on worries about post-Ferguson violence to police. The website, which was first introduced in July 2014, was where the public could view police calls that had been dispatched. It had a 30-minute delay. Last week, the sheriff's office brought the website back, but now only calls that have been completed are going to be shown. Calls in progress are not visible on the site.
>
> Rutherford said the changes are just part of a morphing legal and privacy environment, to which he has a responsibility to adapt.
>
> "We are as transparent as we can legally be," said Rutherford said.
>
> Democrats Tony Cummings and Ken Jefferson, and Republicans Jay Farhat, Jimmy Holderfield, Lonnie McDonald, Rob Schoonover and Mike Williams, are vying to be the city's top law officer.
>
> Four of the seven candidates, Farhat, Jefferson, McDonald and Schoonover, said during a visit to the Times-Union last month that they would restore the media's access the police scanners.
>
> Williams and Cummings didn't address the issue. Holderfield said he wouldn't give back scanners because the current radio technology is encrypted.
>
> "These candidates that are telling you guys, 'We're going to give those radios back,' they're going to put this city on the hook for millions of dollars in lawsuits," Rutherford said. He said citizens couldn't sue him prior to the encryption capability because his agency wasn't actively giving the public access.
>
> In 2011, the sheriff's office took the encrypted radios away from the media, citing budgetary and safety issues. The news organizations leased the radios for $70 a month.
>
> Rutherford said he couldn't stop the public from having access prior to 2011, but now with the encryption capability, it's his responsibility to only allow police to have access to those real-time calls and conversations.
>
> If he gave the radios to the media, he said, he would be liable for any confidential material the media obtained through the scanners.
>
> The sheriff also said his officers don't have other frequencies or channels they can use to discuss confidential information.
>
> "We don't have that time. We don't have that luxury," he said. "Everybody in the zone may need to hear that information."
>
> Rutherford said prior to the agency's ability to encrypt its radios criminals would also listen to police activity. He also said there were instances when the media would arrive at scenes even before the police, creating safety issues.
>
> "That's a response time issue if reporters are constantly beating the police to calls" said Jefferson, one of the candidates for sheriff.
>
> Rutherford said in one instance the media arrived first because his officers had to develop tactical plans before heading to a scene where there was a potential cop killer on the run from another county.
>
> Members of the media, including the Times-Union, complained about losing the police scanners, calling them a lifeline to keeping the public informed and allowing the media to choose what might be newsworthy. But Rutherford noted Thursday no one sued him.
>
> "Bottom lines is, I follow the law," he said.
>
> Candidates Farhat, Holderfield and Jefferson said they would restore the media's access to daily reports on incidents and arrests. Williams said he wants to meet the media in the middle on issues like the daily reports and that could come in the form of a laptop with redacted info on it, the Calls for Service website (which was down at the time of his comments) or the restoration of the blotter room.
>
> Cummings, McDonald and Schoonover each spoke about improving transparency in multiple ways, including being personally accessible and meeting weekly with the media, but they didn't speak specifically about bringing back the daily reports.
>
> For Rutherford, bringing back the media's access the daily arrest and incident reports is completely unachievable.
>
> "It's impossible," Rutherford said. "I would have to go through and redact every single report written in this agency. We absolutely cannot do that."
>
> He used as an example an officer who put a credit card number in a police report.
>
> "We got to go through and look for all this stuff, and we got to redact all this stuff," he said. "That's impossible."
>
> The Times-Union asked if the issue was more of a training issue for the agency's officers, instead of a reason not to provide the reports.
>
> "If we don't want an officer to put it in the report, OK, that's fine," he said. "But then I have to read the report to make sure he didn't make a mistake. I can't just put it out there."
>
> He also said potential investigative material, such as the color of a vehicle being sought, is also exempt and would require each report be reviewed.
>
> To the impression that Rutherford is dictating when and what the public knows about its police agency, he said: "Well, of course we are. That's our job."
>
> "It's my job to control what the media knows about a criminal investigation," Rutherford said. "Absolutely. That's my job. Because that's the only way I can protect the integrity of the case."
>
> And Rutherford said that view in no way conflicts with transparency.
>
> "Not at all," he said. "I'm transparent within the law. And I've got a responsibility to solve these cases."
>
> Rutherford also took issue with a recent Times-Union editorial describing his approach to transparency as "you don't need to know anything."
>
> Rutherford said he's never denied the media's rightful access to information.
>
> "To allege that I have this 'You don't need to know anything' approach to transparency, is ... it's a lie," he said.
>
> Topher Sanders: (904) 359-4169
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