No scoop on the 5-0

November 3, 2005 5:45 PM

I live in a small city in Texas. I got home this evening and found a cop car scene 2 houses down. My wife went to talk to them and they just said, "Everything's ok." Not wanting us to bother them again, I called the non-emergency number and they said, "I'm sorry, sir, I can't release that information." Are they being evasive or is this just standard procedure? I just want to know what's going on in my 'hood, that's all.
posted by zek to Law & Government (10 answers total)

Sounds pretty standard to me. I'd think that if it was something more significant than a domestic dispute, something that could threaten you, they'd let you know. Otherwise, it's not really your business.
posted by panoptican at 5:52 PM on November 3, 2005

Unless you know the folks at which the police were at, you should probably not pry. Consider if it was you, and something potentially embarrassing had taken place -- you'd want the police to protect your privacy from the neighbors as well, right?
posted by thanotopsis at 6:03 PM on November 3, 2005

I'm not blaming zek for not thinking it's a domestic dispute. I'd see cop cars at my neighbors for the longest time until I realized they weren't the assasins from my fantasies but just in a bad relationship. If it's a small city in Texas there's a 99% chance that any police disturbance would be domestic disturbance related. If it was a murder, rape or drug bust you'd know from the news or from people being hauled away.
posted by geoff. at 6:13 PM on November 3, 2005

My town has their police logs on-line, so if that happened here I'd just go look it up. Your's might have them on-line as well or you might be able to look at them at the police station. Or it might be in a local paper.

A domestic disturbance isn't your business but a violent person or couple in the neighborhood is. I don't blame you for wanting to know.

That said, I don't think the cops were being evasive, they probably just didn't want to get into it for reasons thanotopsis mentioned.
posted by bondcliff at 6:24 PM on November 3, 2005

zek: "I live in a small city in Texas."

You don't live in Boston?
posted by Plutor at 6:31 PM on November 3, 2005

Regardless of if it's your business, I know in Georgia it would be a matter of public record and subject to citizens' inspection. That's how papers often get "blotter" type info. I'd be shocked if Texas didn't have similar "sunshine"/Freedom of Information laws on the books.

It may be standard procedure to not disclose that info by phone, at least not immediately; even so, open records laws do apply and can be enforced. Mention this to the operator. If they're not feeling too generous today, you may have to fill out some forms or pay for copies (25 cents/page is standard rate here), but if you're really interested, they'll have to disclose.

While it is true that a serious violent crime would likely be reported in the media, just how small and where your town is might limit that. Be your own watchdog if you're concerned.
posted by SuperNova at 8:17 PM on November 3, 2005

Your police logs should be public information. Call your local paper and ask them how they get it and do the same.

Or you can just wait until the paper publishes it. Mine runs it twice a week.
posted by unixrat at 8:23 PM on November 3, 2005

In my community, it's pretty straightforward to get a copy of a police report if you're involved -- property owner, witness, etc. Otherwise I think it's a FOIA. In terms of what might be happening at a specific address, the cops will often clam up, because it could negatively affect legal aspects or create a neighbor-to-neighbor incident.

In another case, I tried to get the arrest report when an acquaintance was jailed for embezzlement, but was flatly refused. (I wasn't a resident of that jurisdiction.)

You may want to get to know your other neighbors -- generally a good idea anyway. Then you could at least learn, e.g., "those folks have a big knock-down drag-out about once a year". Or "their son is a meth addict". At any rate you'll have some sort of grapevine to tap into. If there is any sort of neighborhood watch, the police should be able to tell you who to contact, and they'll often have a good grasp of historical crime issues.
posted by dhartung at 10:46 PM on November 3, 2005

The police don't see it as part of their job to inform the public. If there's an investigation, they are trained to not release any information; doing that can bias what people tell them. Not giving out information is a habit they cultivate.

Call your local paper and ask them how they get it and do the same.

You mean become a police-beat reporter and ask the cops for an edited version of their log? That's what papers do.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:15 AM on November 4, 2005

You mean become a police-beat reporter and ask the cops for an edited version of their log? That's what papers do.

Yeah, but call logs are public record and anyone can ask for them, not just reporters, (who after all, I know it's corny, represent the public.) The problem with small copshops is that joe citizen almost never comes in asking to see the logs, so they might be unfamiliar with the whole idea of showing public records and stonewall. But you can ask to see whatever they show the local police reporter.
posted by CunningLinguist at 4:13 AM on November 4, 2005