Public Records

Savannah has been lightly scandalized recently by the SCMPD's move to restrict access to incident reports, meaning that people can no longer go in and ask to see the big clipboard of crime (I used to do it twice a week back when I was covering the crime beat - you wouldn't believe some of the stuff that goes down here - an old man was beaten with his own umbrella for refusing a blowjob - I'll never forget that for as long as I live). Now you have to request specific records, which won't be available until the request is processed through bureaucratic channels, and which could come with an admin fee. BS.

It's illegal. Those incident reports are a matter of public record, and the police know it.

Here's a choice sentence from the introduction to A Law Enforcement Officer's Guide to Open Records in Georgia:
"As members of the law enforcement community, we must always be vigi-
lant to ensure that the public we are sworn to protect and to serve is also
protected in its rights to know what its government is doing."

Oops.



Apparently, it's not restricted to Savannah either. It's becoming an issue in Atlanta as well.

Here's a choice quote: "And while violent crime overall in 2008 may have been down, statistics from October, the latest available stats on the APD Web site, show that murder in that one month increased by 140 percent over the number of murders reported in the same month in 2007, rising from five to 12. Rapes increased by 600 percent from one to seven, and residential burglaries increased by 20 percent from 654 in October 2007 to 784 in October 2008."



In Savannah crime is up in 2008 (Property crime up 14%, violent crime down 3%), but Chief Berkow still says it's a "perception problem," and that Savannah isn't worse than any other major city. So, with crime on the rise, regardless of what kind of crime it is...shouldn't we have more access to information that is relevant to crime in our cities? If I know that there has been a rash of property crimes in my neighborhood, can't I take some measures to ensure it doesn't happen to me? If there's been rapes in my neighborhood, shouldn't I make sure my wife knows. If I have to hear about crimes, then request information, then wait for the request to be processed, and possibly pay an administrative fee, haven't I probably already become a victim?

I will readily admit that a big part of the crime problem in Savannah is perception related, and that once you've lived here for awhile, a crime story is like a DUI charge - a badge of courage in most social circles - but correcting the perception can't be done by restricting access to information. That doesn't help anyone. You can only cook the books for so long before an audit airs out the dirty deeds. I'm also a little surprised there hasn't been more public outrage over this...I guess everyone is too worried about their wallets...


Fuck Tha Police (Explicit) (2002 Digital Remaster) - N.W.A.