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I've been hearing several people who don't like @NorfolkPD Chief Larry Boone's reason for not releasing the use-of-force reports to the general public because we're "not qualified" to put them in the proper context.
Chief Boone argues that social scientists, on the other hand, have the experience and expertise to provide that context, bringing in data/information about poverty, crime, calls for service, and other issues tied to poverty, like health disparities.
I agree with the people I've heard from: It's a bad argument. The people of Norfolk have a right to know how their police department — the one they pay for and give power to — is policing them, especially when it comes to how officers use force against people.
Government officials can legitimately withhold information from the public, like when doing so will threaten an active criminal investigation (although Virginia law allows law enforcement to keep investigative files secret indefinitely, long after cases are over.)
I could go on all day (and for several days after that) about how Virginia's FOIA law is actually the opposite, that is, a government tool of anti-information...
...that state lawmakers have included dozens of exemptions that allow public officials to hide the vast majority of government records, documents, and data.
For example, I had for years requested the names, ranks and hire dates, and salaries of all @NorfolkPD officers. Last fall and again recently, @NorfolkVA city officials said they will no longer provide hire dates of city employees because state law doesn't force them to.
In fact, @NorfolkVA city officials have explicitly said they will only provide the bare minimum of information required by law.
In their own words:
"The fact that we provided the information in the past is no guarantee that we would provide it in the future....(W)e are sticking to providing the statutorily mandated data, and nothing else."
"The fact that we provided the information in the past is no guarantee that we would provide it in the future....(W)e are sticking to providing the statutorily mandated data, and nothing else."
But I digress (slightly). Neither Chief Boone nor government officials should be playing gatekeeper to the information based on who those people are or what they imagine they'll do with it.
Either the records/information are releasable or they're not. If they are, you release them. Period. Full stop.
Boone is afraid unqualified people will take the records out of context and make his department and officers look bad, unfairly. I'm sure that would, in fact, happen.
And there are other people who would buttress the records with proper context to provide a full and fair picture of how Norfolk police officers use force.
People will have bad analyses and say dumb stuff. Others will have a much more nuanced approach, with smarter takes.
That's what living in a democracy looks like.
That's what living in a democracy looks like.
Neither Boone nor other city officials should be playing taste police based on what they imagine the public will do.
Boone's "qualified" argument is equivalent to the city manager saying, "The City Council has voted on the city's $1.4 billion budget, but we're withholding it from the public because you're not finance experts...
"...We're going to bring some of those experts in over the next few months so they can create a report and explain it properly."
This, of course, would never fly (knock on wood. Again, you never know in Virginia.. The people deserve to know what city officials are spending their taxpayer dollars on. They also deserve to know how they're being policed.
TL;DR: The public is qualified to look at public documents showing how they're being policed. Release the use-of-force reports.
