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Police release just three weekend crimes to media

A regional daily has discovered that police dealt with more than 2,000 incidents on just one weekend, despite releasing details of just three crimes to the media.

A Freedom of Information request by York’s The Press asked for details of all incidents over a busy weekend during the World Cup in June.

And crime reporter Jennifer Bell was told North Yorkshire Police had dealt with 2,046 incidents between 5pm on Friday 25 June and 5am the following Monday – during which England were beaten 4-1 by Germany in the World Cup.

But she discovered the media had only been informed about three of them – an assault on a taxi driver, a robbery and a stabbing.

News editor Gavin Aitchison said: “It was instantly hard not to contrast the thousands of incidents in the FOI response with the small number that had been publicised by the force.

“North Yorkshire Police’s press department is tremendously helpful whenever we go to them with enquiries – more so than many public bodies in our area.

“But there appears to be a culture within police forces nationally which means the majority of incidents are not made public.

“We knew we weren’t being told as much as we could or should be, but the full extent of the gulf was a surprise.”

The figures released by the police showed police dealt with an average of one incident every two minutes.

These included nearly 500 incidents of anti-social behaviour, 18 sudden deaths, road accidents, sex attacks, 27 missing people reports and seven firearm calls.

Chief Superintendent Colin Taylor, director of corporate communications at North Yorkshire Police, claimed the force was more open and transparent than ever and detailed crime rates were published online each month.

He said a decision was made on a case-by-case basis on which information to release to media about incidents and investigations.

Chf Supt Taylor added: “We take the responsibility of being a trusted source of news extremely seriously.

“However, it is not in the force’s remit to provide a ‘news service’ that outlines every single incident – regardless of operational need – that occurs across the whole of North Yorkshire and the city of York.”

21 comments

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  • November 23, 2010 at 11:16 am
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    The nub of this story lies in the last sentence. When i were a lass, I used to attend the nick and talk to the collator every morning. In later years it became a phone call – but I got told everything that had happened and I and my newsdesk decided what was news. The culture has changed; all we are to the police now is a means to helping them find witnesses, via a tightly-censored press officer and the infamous “voicebank”. Come on, coppers – it IS in the forces’ remit to provide a news service, in the public interest, not just your own!

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  • November 23, 2010 at 12:11 pm
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    For those of us who spent a professional lifetime in newspapers, this story illustrates the alarming manner in which the proper role of the local Press in society is becoming diminished beyond recognition. Chief Superintendent Taylor misses the point by a mile when he says it is not his force’s remit to provide a news service.It is a dereliction of democratic duty for a force to reveal only three of more than 2000 cases of police activity to its local Press. Essential public accountability decrees that it is the force’s responsibility to inform the people it exists to serve of all serious crimes and incidents as they occur, unless there are justifiable operational reasons not to do so. It is up to each force and its local media to establish the most efficient, mutually acceptable, mechanism for ensuring that this happens but happen it must because every community has an indisputable right to know about the ongoing activities of its police force. Whether the regional newspaper industry is ensuring that its own part of this crucial public role is being maintained through adequate editorial resources is, of course, another story.

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  • November 23, 2010 at 12:26 pm
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    Hilary, spot on. If the police don’t want any witnesses, they don’t tell you anything. Perhaps because they don’t have time and from experience, their computer systems are even worse and cumbersome than the ones journalists have to put up with. But it’s extremely infuriating.

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  • November 23, 2010 at 12:36 pm
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    Any crime reporter worth their salt should be side-stepping the press office and finding out about what’s going on through established contacts. Too many reporters expect stories to land in their lap without making the effort to find the information for themselves. Coppers who want to talk still exist – you just have to get from behind your computer to find them!

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  • November 23, 2010 at 1:09 pm
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    This is just the tip of the iceberg…It is also the same with what has been happening in the Magistrate courts. You used to get a list of everything that had been dealt with by the courts on a weekly basis. From Drunk and Disorderly to Driving while unfit throuh drink. Not anymore. It appears the Justice system is becoming less and less accountable each day.

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  • November 23, 2010 at 1:17 pm
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    Hopefully a large number of press officers will be given the boot in the coming public spending shake-up then we can start talking to police officers in large numbers again. Some still talk to me but get told off if senior bods find out!! It is all about managing fear of crime and singing from the same hymn sheet. As for magistrates Courts!! where have they all gone?…our nearest is many miles away and too far to attend on a regular basis

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  • November 23, 2010 at 2:13 pm
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    Maybe next time the cops should tell the reporter about all 2,000 crimes. If the journo goes to the press office and asks “anything of interest overnight?” – what do they expect? What would the reporter do if the press officer said yeah we had 27 missing person reports, listed them all and then said “we found them all, so no story”. Did they ask how many of the reports were dealt with on the day and how many are still outstanding? That would tell us more about what the police are keeping “secret”. The police work with the media to help solve crimes – pure and simple. If they don’t need help, why should they tell you about something?

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  • November 23, 2010 at 2:45 pm
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    It’s not the force’s remit to provide a news service, he says. Well I remember asking a press officer at my local cop shop why they had not attended an incident involving an old dear getting mud bombs chucked at her window in the dead of night. I was told they were “too busy” which I found astonishing and alarming and promptly included in my article. After the story appeared said officer came into the office in person and expressed surprise that I hadn’t taken the time to write a more detailed quote about how the force answers every call and that too busy actually meant they were dealing with more urgent matters. “It’s not the press’s remit to act as a press office for the force.”

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  • November 23, 2010 at 3:57 pm
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    @Sly My paper checks the court register, which the court staff makes available to us. I believe it is a public document anyway. This contains every case dealt with by the court. Some courts provide the same information digitally. There is no reason why y

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  • November 24, 2010 at 10:19 am
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    Many years ago, I gave up my job as district reporter with an evening newspaper to move to its head office. The reporter who replaced me at the district office lasted the best part of a year, not having earned a reputation for front page exclusives or much else for that matter. After this reporter left to become press officer with a police force elsewhere, I discovered to my horror that this reporter had apologised to the local council in the district for all the embarrassing stories I had obtained from the confidential section of the council agenda, to which I had found access via a contact, and this reporter also stopped having copies of the same council’s agenda sent to my home address. One of the first moves this reporter made at the new job with the police force was to draw up and implement a policy to withhold the names of anyone who had been injured in a road accident, thereby deliberately limiting information to the press. I wonder to this day why this person ever wanted to enter journalism, or where they were trained, never mind which plant they had just arrived from.

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  • November 24, 2010 at 10:22 am
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    ‘politicisation of the news’ … manipulation, management, spin … they all sleep in the same bed. We have never needed more good journalists but of course this comes just at the time when managements seem determined to employ as few as poss.

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  • November 24, 2010 at 10:43 am
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    In recent experience, three weekend crimes on a police voicebank is a veritable flood. Some go for weeks without being updated. Police do not believe appealing for witnesses is of any real use either, but it allows them to tick a box. The demise of real officers briefing reporters on actual crimes was engineered to help reduce “community crime perception”. Another box ticked. Most forces have become very proficient in sending out press releases trumpeting their strong working relationship with the public. It’s so they can tell their Chief Constables how they’ve “developed a strong community relationship in the partnerships arena.” That’s also another box ticked – and it will fill a bit more of that white space around the adverts. Happy days!

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  • November 24, 2010 at 12:59 pm
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    This is, of course, a national scandal. For years now the police have edited the crime news. All papers receive, mostly by email in Scotland, a few titbits while other crimes, particularly bigger incidents like assault and drink driving. I always laugh out loud when government spokesmen announce fewer crime figures. No, there aren’t. The police just don’t log them or report them.

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  • November 24, 2010 at 2:45 pm
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    Barrie, all i’m saying is that more and more journalists are becoming lazy and too reliant on press offices. If they had the inclination or time to foster real contacts then they’d get the good stories – that’s when you should go to the press office for a reaction/explanation. Yes I am a journalist.

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  • November 24, 2010 at 3:02 pm
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    well done The Press. Look at most local papers and you would think they served crime free zones. That is exactly what the police want. They spout this “fear of crime” mantra all the time. The truth goes out the window with sanitised news from press officers. I advise papers to run their own appeals for crime stories.

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  • November 24, 2010 at 3:09 pm
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    I agree with most of what is said BUT why should some poor innocent sod who gets a slight injury in an accident or gets robbed have his her name plastered all over the paper just to help us sell papers.

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  • November 24, 2010 at 3:42 pm
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    Richard Meredith and my one-time weeklies colleague Barrie Williams (in our ‘teen years) are so spot-on. I’m as passionate as ever about the role of the press, even though I’ve been retired seven years, after a 49-year stint in the profession. Press department “spin” doctors in the police, local government and central government, choose what they think the public should know. This, together with the unfortunate cut in editorial staffs, due to the economic crisis in the provinical newspaper industry, conspires to rob the public of its due rights, and is a serious threat to democracy. I find Chief Supt Taylor’s final paragraph rather arrogant. These issues should be vigorously challenged by newspapers and the NUJ. I well remember, many years ago, when any hint of non-co-operation by any of the agencies I’ve mentioned, would be high on local NUJ branch agenda.

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  • November 25, 2010 at 9:06 am
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    Didn’t David Cameron say he wanted ideas of how to make savings in the public service? Well, in an era of open data why not release a database of relevant info on crimes? That way you cut out the oversized press offices that exist within many forces.

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  • November 25, 2010 at 11:41 am
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    I am a former journalist who now works as a press officer (not out of choice, but we all have bills to pay). I think the issue here is that many local news outlets, papers, TV and radio, have been stripped to the bone so they are more reliant than ever on what us press officers send out. I find that I’m doing many journalists’ jobs for them these days, and I’m constantly shocked by how releases I send out can appear virtually unedited and unquestioned on newspaper websites within minutes of me hitting send. I like to think I provide a good service to the reporters I deal with, and I think rather than decrying press officers we should be having a look at the media owners who have cut back newsrooms so much that they no longer have the time or resources to forge those releationships with officers. The Chief Constable is right, it is not and never has been his forces’ job to spoonfeed the media with news.

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  • November 26, 2010 at 2:19 pm
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    Fantastic debate here. First plaudits to YEP. Suggest every newspaper does the same and a composite report is sent to Society of Editors to follow up with ACPO. Misreading of Human Rights Legislation and skewed implementation of Data Protection laws mean police have adopted culture of not giving crimes, victims, or anyone else’s details, despite that being best way of catching criminals and beating unsocial behaviour. 20 wasted years to unravel. Bring back Gene Hunt.

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