From the Fayetteville Observer (1/21/10): The Fayetteville Police Department has spent the past week defending its policy of not routinely reporting sexual assaults.
Yet nowhere in the department’s written policies does it say that police should exclude reports of sexual assaults from public dissemination.
And a national accrediting organization, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, offers no guidelines for when police should tell the public about a potential serial rapist.
The Police Department has come under fire from elected officials and residents for waiting until Jan. 11 to disclose seven sexual attacks in the city since June. Investigators say the attacks may be linked to one suspect.
Police officials have pointed to their policy of not reporting the rapes – unless someone specifically asks for the reports under the state’s public records law – in an effort to protect victims and the integrity of investigations. The department’s Web site allows the public to look up almost every type of crime report except sexual assaults.
The practice, though, is not written down anywhere, in stark contrast to numerous written policies and procedures that are listed on the Police Department’s Web site.
Mayor Tony Chavonne ordered City Manager Dale Iman this week to revise that practice so the public is informed sooner about rape cases.
At a special meeting Tuesday to discuss the rape investigation, Iman defended the Police Department’s handling of the cases and the timing of the release. He said it can be appropriate to either withhold information about rapes or disclose such reports to the public, depending on circumstances for each case.
The mayor wants Iman to give a report on his progress for changing the rape-reporting practice when the council meets again at 7 p.m. Monday in City Hall.
Accreditation rules
Many of the department’s procedures are required to be written as part of national accreditation. One is a three-page policy detailing how police are to interview victims of sexual assaults. The policy, however, gives police no guidance about whether to make such attacks public knowledge.
“Presently, it does not address how those types of reports will be disseminated,” police Lt. Chris Davis said in an e-mail Wednesday. “However, that is the portion of the policy we are working on.”
Davis said a four-page policy on handling media inquiries and publicly reporting crimes does not directly address sexual assaults, but the policy does cite a state statute allowing law enforcement to “temporarily withhold the name or address of a complaining witness if release of the information is reasonably likely to pose a threat” to the victim or compromise the investigation.
The Fayetteville Observer does not report the names and specific addresses of rape victims.
Davis said the police have interpreted that state statute to include rape victims, although he acknowledged the definition of “temporarily” withholding such information will vary among victims, investigators and even members of the media.
The investigation
Seven women were sexually attacked since June, including two on consecutive days on Glenwick Drive and two more in November at Tallywood Arms Apartments off Raeford Road. Lawmen are investigating a similar sexual attack on Fort Bragg in December and one Jan. 10 in Hope Mills off Elk Road. A multijurisdictional task force was formed last week to review the cases.
Fayetteville police have begun examining all burglaries in 2009 for any potential connections.
Davis said Wednesday there was nothing new to report regarding the probe into past burglaries.
“There’s always that possibility that maybe someone has progressed from just breaking in and assaulting women,” Davis said.
The Jan. 11 release from Fayetteville police did not mention reports that women had been sexually attacked. The police acknowledged the sexual attacks after the Observer asked more questions. In response to a newspaper’s request, the police released redacted reports of the seven attacks on Jan. 12.
Chavonne on Tuesday asked Iman if the reported attacks in Fort Bragg and Hope Mills, which both became public Jan. 11, influenced Fayetteville police to go public with the news release the same day.
Iman said no.
“The department informs me that the some of the people that were closest to the investigation were not even aware of the fact that somebody in Fort Bragg had contacted the local media,” Iman said. “There is no connection there. There was no pressure generated from that information from Fort Bragg.”
The mayor had more questions for the city manager. Why issue the Jan. 11 release one day before holding a news conference to tout that violent crime had dropped 17.4 percent? And why give out a vague release without anticipating that the media would want to get redacted copies of the rape reports?
“That doesn’t seem to be too much of a stretch to me to have anticipated that people would have wanted that,” Chavonne said.
Iman said the police don’t blacken out sensitive information on reports without getting requests from the media and public first.
Iman has said police began to suspect in December that the rapes might be connected but needed to analyze more evidence before going public and asking the community’s help in solving the cases.
Iman acknowledged Tuesday that he initially would have thought that two rapes in one month at the same apartment complex would have warranted a public notice, but he said he changed his mind after learning more last week about the investigation. He said he had to be vague about the department’s rationale for the timing of the Jan. 11 news release because he wanted to avoid hindering the investigation or a potential prosecution.
On Tuesday, several members of the City Council questioned that delay. They said the public should have been warned sooner.
Amanda Martin, a lawyer for the N.C. Press Association, said last week that the Police Department is not violating state law by waiting to release reports of sexual assaults after someone makes a records request. She said if police chose to withhold sexual assaults from a daily log of crimes that can be publicly inspected, then authorities should state that such crimes are not being included in the log.
Several people in the audience of Tuesday’s council meeting wore teal ribbons on their shirts. Deanne Gerdes, executive director of the Rape Crisis Volunteers of Cumberland County, said the ribbons symbolize sexual assault victims. She said protecting victims is important. Many feel embarrassed and afraid when they make a police report.
Nationally, she said, fewer than 30 percent of rape victims come forward. She hopes any policy changes at the Police Department don’t inhibit women from making reports.
by Andrew Barksdale, Fayetteville Observer Staff Writer