— by Lin McNulty —
See it down there? On the left hand side? It’s right below the Question of the Week. Yeah, that’s it. That’s what we’ve been working at getting for months now: The Sheriff’s Report!
Back in May of this year, we published an Editorial questioning a seeming lack of transparency and accountability from the Sheriff’s Office in alerting the citizenry to issues of public safety and crime on the island. At that time, it was explained by Undersheriff Bruce Distler that their new computer system, although it would print out an activity report, did not redact personal information that was not considered public.
Since that time, I have bugged the Undersheriff entirely too much and today, we received our first Sheriff’s Report from Distler. When I asked him if we will continue to receive weekly reports, he stressed that, “yes, as long as I am the Undersheriff.”
I now owe him a beer. Yes, I bribed a police officer.
We appreciate being able to count on you, Lin, to go to any lengths to access the news we want to see!
Although you might want to have a beer with him, you OWE no one any thing. The sheriffs’ Departments in most towns and counties provide this without a stir. I hope that our local department continues to provide this information. At worst it is fun to read!
It will be very difficult to refrain from commenting on these sorts of “Man bites dog” affairs. You guys might be in for it.