Newspaper, city still at odds over crime records

Council hears from both sides, hopes to reach agreement over 'non-sensitive' reports

June 21, 2006

By COREY YOUNG
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

City Council members expressed hope Monday that at least part of an ongoing dispute between the city and the Petaluma Argus-Courier over access to crime records can be resolved, while saying the city should heed its legal advice in withholding details of certain sexual assault and abuse cases.

Following a two-hour discussion of the state laws that govern public information and the police department's procedures in releasing crime details, council members urged the newspaper and police staff to come to an agreement on publishing details of so-called "non-sensitive" cases like robbery, vandalism and battery.

"I think we can work on the non-sensitive ones and try to make some progress there," Mayor David Glass said.

However, the council indicated that the newspaper's requests for details of child abuse, rape and elder abuse cases should continue to be evaluated by legal staff because of the complexity of those cases and the potential liability if the city releases confidential information.

"If the requests continue to come in on the sensitive information, we're going to have to have the city attorney review it," Councilmember Pamela Torliatt said.

Argus-Courier Publisher John Burns said the newspaper believes details of those crimes, such as the age and gender of the victims -- but not the names -- should be available to the press and public.

And representatives of three statewide press and open-government organizations agreed in a letter sent to the city last week.

"The withholding of child abuse, elder abuse and rape crime information (other than names) from the public and the reasons given to justify keeping this information secret make Petaluma unique among California's 58 counties and several hundred cities," wrote attorneys for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, Californians Aware and the California First Amendment Coalition.

City Attorney Eric Danly said he was disappointed in the letter's statements and said the assertion that the city's disclosure policies are different from other communities is not true.

The city's review of abuse cases and other sensitive crimes is done to balance the need to disclose crime information with the need to protect the privacy of victims and witnesses and ensure the successful investigation of crimes, in compliance with several state statutes, Danly said.

Burns asked the council to make providing the information a priority and said the newspaper is not asking for anything more than it received in the past, before a new computer system at the police department was installed in 2003.

"All this information is public record," Burns said. "We are trying to be a conduit to get the information from point A to point B. We're just looking for a practical way to get the information we used to get."

Members of the public who spoke said information in the newspaper's weekly police log is valuable to Petaluma residents and urged a resolution to the dispute that satisfies both parties -- and doesn't add to the city's legal costs. From February through May, the city spent more than $9,000 in legal costs to review requests for information on sensitive cases, and has spent $6,000 for such review in the first two weeks of June.

"It is critical that the populace be informed of non-confidential details of crimes," Phil Gross told the council. "We can't afford, as a city, to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on this."

"You don't want this to end up in litigation," Frank Simpson said. "There has to be a way to find some solution."

While the dispute over sensitive crime records is unresolved, both sides appeared willing to talk about ways for the press to receive details of other crimes more quickly.

Council members raised the possibility of having police officers go back to writing a short, one- or two-sentence summary of their investigations, as was done for the Argus-Courier before the change to a new computer system that does not print out that information.

Councilmember Mike Healy suggested the two sides meet to agree on what types of non-sensitive crimes the newspaper is likely to ask for, in order to reduce the workload for the police records supervisor and city attorney while assuring the newspaper receives information on notable incidents.

"Perhaps we can eliminate certain categories of incidents not of interest to the newspaper," Healy said. "I'm dedicated to trying to continue to work out these issues."

City Manager Mike Bierman, who met with Burns last week to discuss possible solutions to the ongoing dispute, said the city is willing to sit down and talk again.

"It's going to take some time to work it through, but I think we can get there," he said.

(Contact Corey Young at cyoung@arguscourier.com)