Dear reader,
Only a few weeks ago we had a newsletter about the challenges of producing a daily public safety log. Now we have to take a harder look at how practical producing this log is and if there is something better to report on daily or throughout a week when it comes to public safety.
This is not just a matter of the recent staff reduction, it also is about how relevant the information is we can get for the logs. As we pointed out before, some agencies, including Pendeton and Hermiston police departments, share their run down of police activity online. They outsource that work, and it can mean content on those websites is days old.
Our online data shows some daily public safety logs draw views in the low-hundreds, but many also draw 25-70 views. We can’t determine from one day to the next what will do well and what will not, so the question becomes is this the best use of the staff resources we have?
Maybe instead of a daily public safety log — a chunk of which comes from publicly accessible websites anyway — we should be doing more short updates about significant criminal court cases.
We also are reconsidering just what we publish when it comes to arrests. Almost all of that information comes from websites as well, but newspapers face increasing ethical questions about publishing that information. The arrest report that once ran only in print now lives online, and in some cases can become a burden for people working to improve their lives.
Finding information about arrests is easy, while finding out what happens after the arrests is a more intensive process. We try to publish the outcomes of some criminal cases, there is no way for us to publish the outcomes of all criminal cases in Umatilla and Morrow counties. Maybe we should focus on a few throughout the week and provide more information on those than publish a list of plea agreements and run public safety logs of just meager information.
We also would very much like to hear your thoughts and questions about this or other matters regarding the East Oregonian.
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