NCJ Number
89508
Journal
Center Magazine Volume: 15 Issue: 5 Dated: (September-October 1982) Pages: 56-63
Date Published
1982
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article offers practical suggestions for dealing with the conflict between the right of access by press and public to police records and the rights -- privacy rights and others -- of the subjects of those records.
Abstract
The police blotter should be divided into two parts, with one part being a public record available to anyone and the other part having limited access. The public part would be composed of all official actions, arrests, stops, and investigations. The restricted-access portion would be composed of anecdotal material, unverified reports, and anything that does not involve police action but which has come to the attention of the police. Access to this second part of the blotter should be upon application to a court by a person who is able to establish a legitimate reason for having this information. The police investigative record contains the collected data, hunches, and actions of police officers who are in the process of determining whether there is reasonable cause to think that a crime has been committed, and if so, what it was and who did it. As long as the investigation is active, access to this file should be denied to anyone without a court order, which should be issued only upon a showing of good cause. The most abused aspect of criminal history records is the rap sheet, which is the collection of criminal history of an individual indexed under name aliases, photographs, fingerprints, and other identifiers. Almost invariably rap sheets are inaccurate, obsolete, and irrelevant. Relevant data concerning convictions should be available to the public, but arrests and charges against an individual should not be available to the public unless a heavy public interest can be shown. A discussion of the police made in this article is included, using the observations of criminal justice professionals and responses by the author.