Dear Police Departments,
We need to talk.
Every week, journalists, advocates, and families file public records requests to understand what happened in their communities.
And every week, too many of those reports come back looking like Swiss cheese; blacked out names, blacked out details, entire narratives swallowed by the Sharpie or sweeping Axon Justice military-grade redaction.
Why? Because somewhere along the line, departments decided that if something is still under investigation and has a victim’s name needs to be redacted, the entire report has to go too.
But here’s the thing: what if you are the victim and you’re requesting that report to go to court for a PPO? Why isn’t someone verifying this before they make the report completely worthless?
The current model is lazy, it’s opaque, and frankly, it makes zero sense. Because you’re going to have to handle the report twice and rework = waste.
Luckily for you, I have a solution that could fix it all right now.
Transparency vs. Privacy: A False Choice
Let’s be clear: no one is saying victims don’t deserve privacy.
They absolutely do. But privacy shouldn’t mean secrecy. Right now, departments treat “protecting victims” as an excuse to erase everything.
Especially when you ARE the victim.
Imagine if doctors, when faced with protecting patient privacy, responded by burning the entire medical record. We’d call that malpractice. Yet somehow, when police do it, it’s accepted as “policy.”
The Checkbox Solution
Allow me to blow your mind.
Every police report already comes with a stack of boxes. arrest? check. injury? check. alcohol involved? check.
So go one step further, and incorporate just one more:
☑ Requested by Victim(s)
If the requestor marks that box, verify, and send it off. Because guess what? The judge needs to see all of that to make a decision.
If not, redact the victim’s name and necessary components. Done.
The rest of the report, the facts, the timeline, the conduct of officers, should remain intact. The community gets transparency, the victim gets privacy, and the Sharpies get a break.
It’s crazy simple.
Why It Matters
- Accountability: Entirely redacted reports erase any trail of misconduct, sloppy investigations, or inconsistent charging decisions.
- Community Trust: People can’t trust what they can’t see. Redacting everything tells the public, “We don’t owe you answers.”
- Journalistic Oversight: Reporters trying to hold power accountable get stonewalled, not because the information isn’t there, but because departments can’t be bothered to separate privacy from transparency.
The Bigger Picture
This isn’t just about paperwork. It’s about who controls the narrative of justice. When police reports vanish into black bars, the public loses the ability to ask hard questions:
- Why was force used here?
- Why wasn’t a suspect arrested?
- Why did the prosecutor decline charges?
Without those answers, the system protects itself instead of the people it serves.
If This Happens to You
Challenge the records technician or the department head. You can’t take a redacted report into court for a PPO and expect the judge to do much with it.
So, Police Departments…
Add the checkbox.
Protect victims and honor transparency. Stop making us choose between privacy and accountability when we can and must have both.
Because blacked-out reports don’t build trust or ensure your competence when victims are depending on you. They burn it.
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