POLICING IS A PUBLIC ACT
Chief Rod Knecht of the Edmonton Police Service hits the right note when he says Alberta law enforcement agencies should be “singing from the same songbook” on releasing the names of homicide victims.
But if he’s suggesting other police in the province follow his department’s example of withholding the identities of those killed, that’s where he goes off-key.
If there’s one lead police should all be following, it must be Calgary. The Calgary Police Service, with few exceptions, releases the names of victims and has no plans to change its policy.
That is, unless Knecht spreads the same cloak of secrecy used by Edmonton police across the province. He plans to raise the issue of keeping the names of homicide victims from the public with the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police. Knecht says there should be a consistent provincewide policy for police to avoid confusion among media, the public and police.
Unfortunately, there already seems to be plenty of confusion among police on the information they are required to release. Knecht says his force is trying to balance the privacy rights of victims with the public’s right to know, as well as complying with the provincial Freedom of Information and Protection of Personal Privacy Act (FOIP).
Alberta RCMP are also increasingly closefisted with the names of homicide victims, but K-Division has signalled it will shift away from that policy in the interest of transparency.
Knecht is steering his officers in the opposite direction, saying police have been too loose on providing names. Not so, according to FOIP. While Section 40 does list limitations on who can disclose personal information, it’s superseded by Section 32, which says a public body must disclose “without delay” any information in the public interest.
Homicides are clearly in the public interest and no private matter. They are crimes against the community; their victims cannot be allowed to die anonymously — nor should the perpetrators go unnamed. The public shouldn’t have to wait a year or two until the case goes to trial — if there is one — to learn the victim’s name and whether he or she needed help that never came or whether the violence is part of a bigger problem like organized crime or domestic violence.
Yes, families of victims aren’t obliged to comment and those wishes are respected by the vast majority of media outlets.
Police may have another reason to keep victim’s names secret. Scrutiny on the effectiveness of their investigations can be intense, but for a public agency enforcing society’s laws, that’s the way it should be.