BUFFINGTON: Why we publish Barrow crime and court news

An example of that happened last week when a blogger on a third-party Barrow blogsite complained about the Journal’s coverage of local crime news. He claimed to be a businessman (no name) and argued that our crime coverage “embarrassed” Barrow County.

The blogger said he had asked the Barrow Chamber to pressure us to cool our crime coverage, but had been rebuffed and was told by chamber leaders that the organization had no influence over the Journal’s publishing decisions (and it doesn’t.)
Funny that this businessman never asked us directly about the Journal’s crime coverage and only sought a political means to pressure us to stop.

Had he bothered to ask us directly why we have so much crime coverage in the Journal, we could have explained it very simply: Because there is a lot of crime in Barrow County to be covered.

That may be a shock to some in Barrow County. Before the Journal began publishing, there was virtually no local coverage of crime or judicial proceedings in Barrow County unless it was a murder. Everything else was ignored or buried.

But one of the hallmarks of all our newspapers in Northeast Georgia is aggressive local crime and court coverage. We don’t treat the Journal’s coverage of local crime any differently than we do at any of our other local newspapers. The same rules apply across the board.

The most important of those rules is that we publish the names of EVERYONE arrested each week. We refuse to play favorites based on who someone is or his (or her) standing in the community. We don’t care if you’re the town drunk from housing projects, or the president of the community’s largest business — if you get arrested, your name and the charges will be published.

In the past, I’ve published the names of friends and my own family members who ran afoul of the law. We don’t make any exceptions.

Another rule is that we read through every incident report from the various law enforcement agencies each week and publish summaries.

There are a couple reasons for that. First, a lot of things happen that may not lead to an immediate arrest, but that are serious or involve public officials. Second, by publishing incident summaries each week, our readers can see what is happening in their own neighborhoods and get a feel for the kinds of problems that plague the community overall. Don’t you want to know if there were 10 thefts on your street last week?

Finally, we publish the disposition of cases from the local courts. We believe it is important for readers to see how cases were handled and whether or not someone who had been arrested was convicted or found not guilty (or if people are being treated differently or unfairly by the judicial system.)

So why bother to do all of that?

For one thing, that’s where your tax dollars are going. If you combine the cost of all the various public safety agencies in Barrow County and the judicial system, that makes up the lion’s share of local government spending (excluding the local school system.)

The largest part of the Barrow County government’s budget is for public safety and judicial expenses. Police departments are generally the largest expense in local town governments. And taxpayers are paying a lot of money in Barrow for a new jail and a new courthouse, both of which are part of the criminal justice system.

In addition to the huge amount of tax dollars involved, publishing details of the local criminal justice system helps keep transparency and accountability in the process. Local law enforcement and judicial officials are always under a cloud, suspected of playing favorites, etc. By publishing the details of their actions, readers can judge for themselves if the system is honest, or if there are problems. And they can do that without having to rely on rumors and innuendo because we are publishing the facts.

That brings us back to the question of why there is so much crime coverage in the Journal. The reality is, crime is a major problem in Barrow County. On a list of Top 5 problems, crime would rank number 2 or 3. Drug crimes. Domestic violence. Teen alcohol abuse. It’s a lot for a small community.

But how would citizens even know about those issues without the Journal’s reporting? These problems aren’t just confined to the community’s underbelly; they affect everyone, not the least of which is through the cost of law enforcement with your tax dollars.

As for the blogger’s claim last week that the Journal’s crime coverage “embarrasses” the community, that’s a bogus argument. It’s the old standard, if you don’t like the message, then shoot the messenger. Hide the reality so the public won’t know. Put your head in the sand.

But rather than attempt to pressure the Journal to stop reporting the truth, why didn’t this blogger try to do something to address the real problem — local crime? Why doesn’t he sponsor anti-drug abuse programs in local schools, or donate his time or money to the Peace Place or CASA or the Rape Crisis Center, or any of a dozen other local programs that are designed to help mitigate crime problems through education, support and training.

The Journal is committed to covering the Barrow County community in depth, including details of local crimes and the actions of the judicial system. That’s a major part of our mission.

As for last week’s blogger taking us to task, he proved our point. Because the Journal publishes crime news, he noticed that Barrow County has a crime problem.

That shows our coverage is worth the effort — consistent reporting on important community issues helps bring them into the public domain for debate and discussion and gives the issue a clearer focus.

And that kind of reporting, in the long run, will help lead to the kinds of actions needed to solve the serious problems the community faces.

Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com. His blog can be found by clicking here.