Names dropped for lesser crimes on newspaper police blotter

Some newspapers, with radically reduced staffs unable to follow up on the disposition of cases, are dropping names from their police blotters for lesser crimes. They still report the crimes so that readers will know the areas involved.

The late State Desk Editor, Pat Englehart, made it a point for his staff to keep track of every crime reported in the BJ and to check regularly on the disposition of the case. He felt it was unfair to name a person at the time of his arrest or indictment, then not notify the BJ readers if the case were dropped or the person were found innocent. 

But it was impossible to follow every arrest reported and let the BJ readers know how it turned out because it often takes months from arrest to resolution.

The University of Connecticut and University of Miami at Oxford, Ohio student newspapers have stopped naming those arrested for lesser crimes.

Technology and Google and the social media have greatly expanded the problem. 

The names of those arrested remain out there forever, but the disposition often doesn’t show up in the search. So a person found innocent or having the charges dropped or reduced shows up on Google the same as the person found guilty. And Google searchers don’t know how the cases turned out.

Worse, potential employers – who more and more use social media to check on prospective employees – see the arrest but not the disposition.

Mainstream papers such as the Palm Beach, Florida Post and the Chattanooga, Tennessee Free Press and Times continue to publish names of those arrested.

To read Gail Macdonald’s entire article, click on http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/235493/college-papers-dropping-arrestee-names-from-crime-blotters/