How public is public information?
April 17, 2013
By Mike Weland
Publisher

I am, sadly, a rotten commodity. I am a journalist, a reporter. My job is to provide information to people who need it, much of it referred to as "public" information by those who serve the public.

Getting public information from those public servants who compile and maintain the "official" public record in a timely and expeditious manner can be frustrating, but that's my job.

Unfortunately, journalists have built a bad reputation, capitalizing more on the scandals that "sell papers" rather than in doing what the better of our forbearers did,  running out into the night to spread word of a coming storm, that those who hear might take cover. To tell of what those we choose to represent us are doing to serve our common interests.

To tell of what is going on, here, now. In our community.

News is a valuable commodity, but one with an exceedingly short shelf life.

Public servants charged with keeping the public record have become jaded and wary of reporters, and I, a small town reporter, have a hard time getting public information from those I rely on to provide it, the servants of the public trust and keepers of the record, that I might relay it to the public they are charged with serving.

That's one of the the main reasons News Bonners Ferry exists.

I fill the gaps between crises with news and information I think matters, but when situations develop where lives might be at stake, I sit behind this computer putting news out as fast and accurately as I can and by all means at my disposal.

That, as a journalist, is my reason for being. To earn public trust. To get word out, and for that word to be dependable.

I can't provide that information to the public if those who serve the public won't trust me, a member of the public who happens to be a journalist, and who put unreasonable hoops to jump through in the way of my obtaining said public information.

I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for a "genuine" member of the public, unschooled in the labyrinthine processes involved, to gain access to a snippet of public information essential to them, especially when time matters.

In a breaking news situations, where roads are closed or a possible threat exists, such as the potential "kidnap" situation April 14, I have no one to call for timely information, and unless it's a truly remarkable event, such as an upcoming election, I seldom get calls from those in authority asking me to provide public information to the public.

Sheriff's dispatchers aren't allowed to give out information, the people who are are busy at the scene and don't have time. I accept that.

By listening to the scanner and fielding calls, emails and Facebook posts from those members of the public being served, I can usually piece together the information and do what the authorities can't; get word out to those of the public with a cell phone or an internet connection in time to warn of trouble ahead.

I think my efforts help.

What breaks my heart is the response I get when I ask for routine "public record" information from those best able to provide it and I am denied.

I called the county jail a day or two after the "kidnapping" to get information I needed to round out the article I was, at that very moment, writing.

The person who answered let me know the suspect was still in custody, but refused to give me a date of birth.

"I don't know who you are, sir. I can't give that information."

"That is public information," I replied. "I am a member of the public."

"I can't give out that information," he said. "I don't know who you are on the telephone."

Driving in and knocking on the jailhouse door would have been inconvenient, and nothing I could think of to say on the telephone would convince him that I am a member of the public. It took another phone call, tinged with frustration, to get the public information I sought.

Worse still, trying to get "official" information on the rash of school bomb threats ... I often learned of official press releases well after the fact because those releases are only issued by fax, a technology I hadn't incorporated because it had been outdated by email long before I started this site. I now have a fax, but I have yet to receive one.

When asking routine questions, law enforcement referred me to the prosecutor, the prosecutor referred me to law enforcement. Neither would talk to me and repeated calls went unreturned, even though the sole questions I sought answers to were matters of public record.

"Have charges been filed? Are they public record? What's the case number?"

"We have very strict rules to abide by," I was told at last.

"Have charges been filed?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Are they public record?"

"I believe so, yes."

"And you can't tell me the case number?"

"I'd rather not."

Fortunately, I had the answer to my main question and staff in the clerk's office had a better understanding of the definition of "public." She was able to locate the file I walked in and asked for without hesitation, even though I lacked specifics that would have made finding that file easy and precise.

I was even politely told that there were two other files I might be interested in, but those records were still sealed by the court and hence not public. I was welcomed to check back later.

I thanked her and obtained the official public information I wish I'd known about and had requested at least two weeks earlier.

The report would have been the same (sometimes even journalists display a sense of ethics) but more timely, had I been spared the silence and obfuscation of those we entrust.

I, and perhaps a few public servants as well, would have also been spared a few calls from a public clamoring to know what was going on in a matter that has affected us all.

The public is right to clamor ... they, we, have an absolute right to know matters of public interest. As a journalist, I have a duty to obtain that information and report it if I am to gain that commodity I value most highly; the public trust.

The servants of the public, those whom we elect and those whom they appoint, should feel an obligation to share that information freely with the public they serve, and by all means at their disposal.

Even through such a rotten conduit as a damned journalist. Even if it is someone they don't know on the telephone.