Readers may have noticed that The Tribune’s regular summaries of Winslow Police Department activity have not appeared recently. The absence is not because the newspaper has lost interest in covering public safety. Instead, it stems from a change in how the department distributes its records to the media, which temporarily made it difficult for The Tribune to obtain the information needed to provide the level of coverage the community has come to expect.
For at least the 15 years the Tribune has received the department’s full dispatcher log each week. Those logs provided a complete list of calls, incidents and arrests handled by officers across the city. From that full list, the newspaper could identify which incidents were most relevant to readers and request additional information about specific cases where necessary. The system worked well because it allowed The Tribune to see the full scope of what officers were responding to week to week.
Recently the department transitioned to a new records software system. Instead of sending the full dispatcher log, the new system automatically generates a smaller selection of records that are distributed to the media. In effect, the software chooses which incidents are shared rather than providing the full picture of activity across the department.
That change raised immediate concerns for The Tribune. Without the dispatcher log, the newspaper would need to file formal public records requests simply to see the same baseline information that had previously been provided routinely. Those requests can involve administrative processing time and fees and obtaining the level of detail required for regular weekly coverage could quickly become expensive.
That cost could easily add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year. For a small local newspaper operating with limited resources, those expenses could force difficult decisions about how much routine police coverage could realistically continue.
The records that were automatically sent through the new system also often lacked basic details. Some entries included as little information as a single word such as “arrest,” without identifying who was arrested, the person’s age or what the alleged offense was. Without those details, the information is not sufficient for meaningful reporting or for helping the public understand what actually happened in their community.
The issue is particularly significant in a city like Winslow because The Tribune is currently the only local media outlet regularly working with the police department. Radio station KINO, which previously provided additional coverage, has recently shut down. That means The Tribune often serves as the only consistent independent review of police activity available to the public.
Winslow Police Chief Ernie Cano, City Manager David Coolidge and Tribune publisher Shawn White recently met to discuss the situation and explore solutions. The conversation was productive and focused on finding a way to maintain the level of transparency the department has historically provided while still allowing the new records system to operate efficiently.
Cano has long served as the department’s information officer, a role he held well before becoming chief and has built a reputation for working cooperatively with local media to keep the public informed. City staff are now working to revise how the system provides information so that The Tribune can continue receiving the type of records that have historically allowed for comprehensive weekly coverage.
The goal is to create a process that streamlines records distribution while not requiring the newspaper to make frequent formal records requests for basic coverage. For a department that accounts for more than half of Winslow’s general fund, all parties involved agreed that maintaining clear public visibility into its operations is in the best interest of the community and the department.
While the new software is intended to streamline records management inside the department, the discussions have centered on making sure that efficiency does not come at the expense of transparency. The Tribune continues to work with the city and the police department on the issue and remains optimistic that a solution will be reached soon so that regular police activity coverage can return.
