The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Baton Rouge police have issued a new policy saying they will only release information to the news media through written requests.
The change was made after The Advocate of Baton Rouge filed a public records request for the time sheets of Police Chief Pat Englade.
Sgt. Charles Armstrong, a department spokesman, said the policy change was unrelated to the request for the chief’s time sheets. He would not say who ordered the new policy.
“This has to do with the media relations office being understaffed,” he said.
John Maxwell Hamilton, dean of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, called the timing “an amazing coincidence” and said there is potential cause for concern.
“The public has a right to know what’s happening in the community and in a timely way,” he said. “I can conceive of cases where you’d want a records request, but I’d hate to think there are things happening in the community that I can’t find out about. That would bother me both as a citizen and as a journalist.”
The police department’s media relations office has had one full-time employee since April. Until last week, the department, usually through spokesman Cpl. Don Kelly, released information most days about crimes ranging from murder to drunken driving over the telephone.
Armstrong said providing the information over the phone and in a timely fashion was a “courtesy.” Incidents of violent crimes such as killings and rapes will be announced in news releases, he said.
He said all media will be required to file written requests to access information from the department.
However, Russ Kilgore, director of news at WBRZ-TV, and Vicki Zimmerman, news director at WAFB-TV, said Thursday that neither they, nor their reporters, have been notified of the new policy.
Mayor Bobby Simpson said Thursday he was unfamiliar with the policy. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” he said. “I don’t know the reasoning, but I’ll look into it.”