Watch Jefferson CountyWho has been arrested and What Happened in Court
While I was home (Princeton, Illinois) these past few days, I stopped into the County Prosecutor's Office (known there as the "State's Attorney Office"). I asked about how the local paper, the Bureau County Republican (much like the Spirit) goes about collecting information about arrests and case dispositions because that paper has a section listing the arrests during the past week and case dispositions for misdemeanors, DUI traffic, and of course, felonies.
He said that the Bureau County Sheriff's Office has always had a policy that a reporter from the Bureau County Republican or any other paper may stop in the Sheriff's office or the Princeton City Police office in the morning and collect a copy of the top sheet of the police arrest reports from the previous day. This top sheet provides the name of the person arrested, the date, time, and basic offense. It does not contain the body of the police report with details about the arrest that could be used in court as evidence.
The reporter uses this information to create a short article about the arrests (I brought a copy of this home, if anyone is interested). To report on case dispositions, reporters for the Republican check the court docket in the morning and are present during arraignments, and any other motions, sentencing, etc. concerning criminal (felony or misdemeanor, or repetitive DUI offenses). If a reporter cannot be present, the reporter at least checks the docket and then follows-up at the clerk's office and reviews the orders entered that day in these cases.
As Bureau County is very similar to Jefferson County in population, crime statistics, etc, I think this method could be used by the Spirit or another paper or even local citizens to keep aware of what is happening. Even obtaining a limited arrest report would help citizens track the cases better in court.
What do you say Spirit editor, citizens, Sheriff?
Location(s)
- John Brown Farm
- 144 Wild Dogwood Lane
- Harpers Ferry, WV, 25425
- Map location provided by member.
Comments
A Grand Idea by KatherineA and Certainly not New
If memory serves correctly, the Spirit used to perform that service(at least with regard to MVA's). The Martinsburg paper routinely reports that info. I offered over a year ago to post the info on S'dale dot org but received not response from the Sheriff or State Police.
With the advent of Watch.Jeff and the encouraging signs of cooperation between that website and LE(at least at the County level), the timing should be propitious for such a project on this site if the localint publications balk. It can be done on a Countywide basis, not just the mountain as I had originally envisioned and in a much more appropriate venue than Shannondale and Beyond.
I'll award Katherine an attagirl for work "above and beyond"
Experience the History of the Blue Ridge Mountain,
Try www.Shannondale.org
Just The Facts ... And The Arrests Records! (Public Record)
IM4 Katherine's idea! With cooperation and communication WE ALL WIN!
It's like having a "gauge" on crime. Being aware of what kind of arrests are being made allows for law abiding citizens to be in-the-know. Whether its drugs, robberies, DUIs, domestic issues, grand theft auto, shoplifting ... how terrible to not know about this stuff. A long time ago the old Gaithersburg Gazette used have a page or two of the "police log". Local arrests ... they would print the person's name, age, street name, and type of offense. If a juvenile ... then they would still print "juvenile arrest" and the type of offense.
If it's "public record" then I don't see why it can't be "reported" to the voting public!
Sorting Reports??
I don't really see how sorting would be a big problem as far as release of the arrest records. Moreover, publishing the name of Mr. X who was arrested for sexual assault, shouldn't mean that the victim's name would also be published. As I discussed with the Bureau County State's Attorney, reporters only get the portion of the arrest report that gives the basic information, name, date, offense.
Of course juvenile arrests could not be reported or shared with the media. If the reports that could be released (i.e., adult offenders charged with DUI, misdemeanors, and felonies) on a daily or even twice a week basis, I can't imagine it would amount to more than a dozen reports on a pick up day. If it is more than that - wow! Things are out-of-hand and it is even more important for the public to become aware. I was not envisioning that routine" traffic stops for speeding would be published, just the "crimes" involving property, etc.
Katherine
Arrest Logs
Hi,
I would like to say that you have a good idea with the arrest logs, the only draw back to the arrest log is that we are even logging in juveniles in that. It would be hard for the office personnel to go through each arrest to see who is an adult and who is a juvenile. The other problem is that the reason the newspapers do not get names is due to the seriousness of the crime; I.E: Sexual assault cases, these names cannot be published due to it protecting the family members.
I can check with the sheriff if it is OK to give out a copy of the accident reports in the county, I don't think that would be a problem.
Arrest Logs Culling
I would be willing to meet with Dep Tiong or another LE rep at the Sheriff's Office anytime this next week to develop a system to sort-out or cull the arrest logs without adding to the workload of the office staff.
Once a "goof-proof" system is in place, it would be an easy matter to train a dependable and trustworthy volunteer to do a daily 10 minute post of arrest activity.
Thanks to LE for consideration of Katherine's request for additional and timely info. Criminals despise this type of cooperation and communication!
"All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." E. Burke (1729-1797)
Hopefully soon
Hi All,
Thanks for bringing this up Katherine! Posting Arrest / accident logs was one of the original goals of watch.Jefferson-County. We've brought it up with a few individuals within the County government and so far haven't had much enthusiasm. Admittedly, we haven't pressed the issue. However, since it was last brought up, much has changed. The community reporting part of the site is being utilized and Counties and police departments in other parts of the country have successfully implemented online crime stat reporting. I just heard yesterday the Frederick County is rolling out a similar program. The best implementation thus far (in my opinion) is http://www.chicagocrime.org/.
I would love to be able to add recent accidents and criminal activity (the same info you see published in most papers) to the watch.Jefferson-County database. These incidents would then be searchable by location, time, incident type etc. I think this would go a long way towards helping communities identify problems before they get out of hand and helping police gather information about crimes. I believe it would also have the potential to help boost public understanding of law enforcement and the difficult job they have. Of course it would also boost membership and reporting which in turn provides more data and information to police.
If anyone out there has an idea as to where to go next or whom to contact to work towards this goal, please let me know.
Thanks!
Meeting time
If anyone has any ideas as to how to set this program up I would be more than glad to meet with them at the Sheriff's Department. We can sit and go into detail on how we can make this work so that everyone is up to speed with all that is going on in the wonderful county. Please let me know and I will set things into place.