Police Chief David Brown said at a City Council public safety committee meeting that the system, which was put in place last June, was a needed upgrade and complies with state law protecting the privacy of juvenile suspects and victims of sex crimes and domestic violence.
Unlike the previous system, the new one does not provide the public with detailed descriptions of crimes or reports of rapes or incidents involving juveniles or families.
Officials said the department lacks the manpower and resources to filter legally protected information — such as victims’ names or identifying information — from affected police reports, so those reports aren’t posted online at all.
“Much of it was not legal for our department to release” under the old program, said Maj. Rob Sherman, of the crimes against persons division.
But two City Council members expressed frustration that the department won’t release more information on crime locations while still not identifying victims.
Council members Lee Kleinman and Jennifer Staubach Gates said they were skeptical about the department’s claims that technological issues prevented public information from being released.
“I can talk into my phone” and it auto-corrects any spelling errors and can predict text, Kleinman said. “This inability to filter stuff on the fly — that’s what computer systems were designed to do.”
One man told the committee that he believes residents should be able to access general information about the location and patterns of crimes that are being committed in their areas so they can be aware and know what to look for in protecting themselves. Paul Landfair, of Woodbriar crime watch in North Dallas, said certain identifying details could be held back, but he said information such as the date, time, address block and incident number should be available to the public.
Such information, he said, would help residents be more aware and know what to look for in protecting themselves.
“All of us crime watch people are concerned,” Landfair said. “Crime happens in waves. It moves like a disease.”
Brown said his department is committed to transparency and maintained that Dallas police release more information than agencies in other large cities.
But he said city officials should lobby state lawmakers to change the wording of the law to allow the department to release more information to the public without compromising the privacy of victims.
“I don’t know if we’d make any headway this session,” Brown said, “but we can certainly try.”
©2015 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
