I am not sure what "hiding crimes" means. This is outside of this rape situation. Are you saying that when you or someone asks for crime statistics you are getting incorrect information? Or that the city isn't reaching out to report crimes that are happening in the city?
My republican comment was responding to Mr. Deneen's "republican roots" point.
I guess I am not clear one what mechanism crime statistics need to be shared and in what venue. Should we get daily/weekly/monthly crime updates? Or just use the existing Blotter posts in the local paper? Should we get robo-called? Again, outside of a "be on the look out" sort of deal in the situation above.
I am not clear what a typical citizen expectation is on crime reporting, what your expectations are and how the city should attend to this.
Is it because crime stats are hard to come by? I ask because if you are saying I can do research that would show not all crimes are reported how are we finding this out? What are we seeing that the City is reporting vs. what is really happening?
Hi Phil,
To be specific, an example of "hiding crimes" is labelling police reports "departmental information" when a crime has occurred or has been alleged. By doing this, the Ohio Sunshine Laws can be skirted because it can be claimed that the report is a "confidential law enforcement investigatory record." In this case, the law enforcement agency is not obligated to produce the report for public viewing. They can pretty much say something is "under investigation" for an infinite amount of time. Therefore, when reports are labelled like this, it is unlikely that you will ever see them.
Should we get daily/monthly/weekly crime updates? Should we rely on the blotter in the paper? Currently, I don't think we can rely on either, as when reports are labelled in such a manner, the media would not have access to the reports either. Even if they did get access, would they print what they found?
In crime reporting, I expect crimes and alleged crimes to be labelled properly in the police media log, the crime map, and elsewhere. In the event of a serious crime, like rape happening, a statement needs to come from the city. Does the public need to worry? Has a suspect been apprehended? Is there a rapist on the loose? These seem like pretty simple questions to me.
I notice that many rapes and alleged rapes in Lakewood are labelled "department information" or something of the like. What makes a rape allegation different from an allegation of any other crime? Should we label robberies departmental information because we don't know if the victim can be believed? What makes rape victims different from victims of other crime? This is one of the reasons why rape is one of the most under-reported crimes. Victims are often not taken seriously and are often blamed and/or given the brush-off.
We have an excellent police force and I don't think the police are labelling these this way on their own volition. I suspect that the orders to do this come from the safety director. If a rape or alleged rape is labelled department information, it is easier to file it away somewhere so it never goes down as a statistic, which protects the Lakewood "brand" like I suspect the mayor/safety director wants.
I have attached a word document with copies of police media log reports. Note that some of these are labelled correctly as "sexual assault" or something similar. However, was the public ever informed about any of these except for the attack on the elderly woman at the Westerly?
One, while I cannot find any allegation of rape, was where a 20-year old girl was apparently knocked out while walking on Bunts near the high school. When she woke up, she was all bloody and dirty. Another, where I also cannot find any allegation of rape, was also frightening to me. A female on Wyandotte alleged that she woke up to a man trying to get on top of her in bed. She must have fought him off and he left. Was the public ever notified about this other than in this log? Not to my knowledge. The report was also labelled "suspicion".
There are two other alleged sexual assaults that apparently disappeared from the logs before I could copy them. One was a case where a young boy was allegedly sexually molested by a stranger outside an apartment building near Pepper's Restaurant. The first and last time I saw this report, it was labelled "departmental information". Was the public ever informed about this? Not to my knowledge. Another happened just a few weeks ago on Halstead. Details on this one were sketchy to begin with, but is was labelled "sexual assault" before it apparently disappeared. I wonder if this will go down as a crime statistic.
If you are so inclined, please see the attachment. We are not a perfect city and I think most of us know that. The safety, especially of our women and children should be taken seriously.
