Kudos to the Santa Fe New Mexican and the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government for their push against the city of Rio Rancho and its police department in a quest to inspect records regarding the death of a Santa Fe cop’s son in Rio Rancho.
At issue is the city leaning on the Children’s Code to deny the release of records in the child’s death at the family home. This is a favorite excuse law enforcement and their records custodians use to withhold documents of all types and/or to redact information.
We’ve educated many cops over 30 years and tried to educate many others, who believe children’s names and other information are protected by the Children’s Code. That code applies in abuse and neglect cases handled by Children, Youth and Families Department. It does not apply to every case involving a child and it doesn’t apply in this case.
Those in the media trenches for an extended period of time become used to public agencies looking for ways to withhold information from the public. Some of us are certain it’s in the job description and one of the interview questions to get hired. We also acknowledge many are more scared of a parent or family member suing the agency for releasing the information, than they are of the media suing them for non-release.
No group of agencies works harder at withholding information than law enforcement. It’s understandable. Every time an officer or group of officers do something questionable, we all have the luxury of Monday morning quarterbacking their decisions with the use of lapel recordings. We can watch what happened before during and after a shooting and see ways things should have, could have gone differently. No one wants that kind of scrutiny.
However, the fact remains they are accountable to the public.
We have a similar problem with the city of Española and its police department regarding a Nov. 28 incident report for an unnamed man being shot somewhere in the city. The E-911 entry only states someone picked up the gunshot victim on Fairview Lane and was heading toward the Española Valley High School.
Redacted in the sparse report are the names of the victims, a suspect and witnesses, best guess, six of them. We know the victim and the man arrested were both men based on E-911 radio traffic.
City police interviewed several people, including presumably children because one of the many reasons for the redactions was the Children’s Code. It may or may not apply but that’s impossible to tell from the limited information the Department provided.
The “suspect” was arrested on a different charge. He was arrested and taken to jail. That’s not a suspect, that’s a prisoner.
We can’t imagine a reason to withhold the victim’s name and that of the person who picked him up on Fairview Lane. Cited as reasons for those redactions are the Law Enforcement exemption of accused but not charged the always popular “confidential informant” and “revealing confidential methods of investigation.” One guy shot another guy somewhere in the city. What confidential method could our city police detectives be employing? Find the gun, find the bullet, ask the guy who got shot who shot him. Most cases are not CSI Miami.
We disagree but understand keeping secret the names of children who are moving through the Children, Youth and Families Department meat-grinder. However, that limitation in the law gets overused routinely throughout law enforcement. As we’ve stated here many times, our violent incidents are being committed by younger and younger people. Identifying them and giving the public the opportunity to be aware for people’s safety and participate in the judicial process can help stem that onslaught of violence coming from an increasing number of youthful offenders.
We agree with FOG Executive Director Shannon Kunkle, when she writes to Rio Rancho that the Code does not apply and the city should release the records. It’s truly baffling they have not released any records, much less some that are redacted heavily. The Act doesn’t allow withholding complete documents. (Illegally) redacted ones, yes, but not the whole document. The city’s attorney is standing on shaky ground.