{"id":1324,"date":"2015-04-17T11:41:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T15:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.townehouse.net\/phoenix\/?p=1324"},"modified":"2016-12-03T06:35:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T11:35:04","slug":"the-illusion-of-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1324","title":{"rendered":"The Illusion of Transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"transparency\"<\/a>On March 2nd, shortly after midnight, the Cincinnati Police department received a 911 called reporting an aggravated burglary that had just occurred. A description of the offender was provided and District 3 Police Officer’s James Davis and Jason Bolte (the ‘e’ in Bolte is not silent) responded to the area. What happened next was nothing less than heroic and is indicative of the brave and selfless acts routinely performed by members of the Cincinnati Police Department. In short, the perpetrator was brandishing a shotgun and pointed the shotgun at the officers. After repeated and unheeded warnings, the officer\u2019s opened fire, striking the suspect , 24-year-old Christian Jackson, several times. Jackson attempted to flee but was overcome by his injuries and was apprehended at short distance away. It is my opinion that James Davis and Jason Bolte should be cited for bravery and heroism and perhaps that is yet to come. The preceding is the good news, and now for the bad news.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As many are aware, one of Cincinnati’s Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell<\/a>‘s favorite words to use when speaking in public is \u201ctransparency\u201d. Apparently this transparency does not extend to his own activities. Following this incident, I received a private message from an anonymous source reporting<\/p>\n

\u201cwhen it was time to notify the command staff, no one could find the chief to contact him and he never returned calls, he didn’t find out about the shooting until the next day.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I, of course, was not there so I tried to confirm this report before I went any further. It was at this point that transparency went from transparent, to translucent, to opaque, to black. Following are the steps I followed, attempting to verify if Blackwell was notified, how and when he was notified, and if he did or did not respond to the scene. I was fairly certain he did not respond to the scene, because I did not see any photographs of him mugging for the camera on the CPD Facebook page<\/a> nor his own personal Facebook page<\/a>, nor his Twitter feed<\/a>. Based on past performance, he would not pass up a photo opportunity such as this if he were there. That being said, I still do not know if he were there or not. However, the following describes the actions I have taken thus far to find out.<\/p>\n

My first impulse was to simply asked someone who may have been on the scene. I sent an email to several assistant police chiefs inquiring what command officers were on the scene. One responded that he was not on the scene and did not know who was, the other did not answer my email. I followed up by sending an email to the Police Department’s Record Section under the heading of \u201cPublic Records Request\u201d with the following four questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Which command officers (Captain and above) were notified, how they were notified, and by who?<\/em>
    \nWhat time were they notified?<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Once notified, did they respond to the scene?<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. If they responded to the scene, what time did they arrive?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    My email was answered by Dianne Nelson<\/a>, Records Section Manager, with the following response:<\/p>\n

    \u201cI appreciate your request for public records. The Ohio Public Record Law requires that the City provide you with the records\/documents responsive to your request. The Public Records Law, however, does not require that the City answer questions about public records. Therefore, Police Records will provide you with responsive records not considered an exception under ORC 149.43. Under the public records law, information in an ongoing police investigation is not releasable according to ORC 149.43 (A)(2). Consequently, please revise your request for the first item so that we can send provide the responsive records that are releasable at this time. \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n

    Apparently I did not ask the right way. One would have thought that based on the specific questions I asked, the documentation could be provided, but what do I know.<\/p>\n

    Next I resubmitted my request asking,<\/p>\n

    \u201cPlease provide any documentation, logs, or rounds from any\/all Command Officers who were on scene of the recent shots fired by Officer Bolte and Davis. Please provide any documents, logs, or other records maintained by the Emergency Communications Section with regard to the Situational Occurrences Notification List. as required in Police Procedure Manual Procedure 12.550. Please provide the rounds of the night inspector Lt. Tim Brown from the night of the officer involved shooting. as indicated above. Please provide any Commanding Officer’s Daily Rounds, or any emails recorded on the date of the incident as indicated above. Please provide any logs, rounds or emails relative to the incident maintained by Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell. \u201c.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Following that, I have received a copy of the Night Inspector’s rounds for that night, which made no mention whatsoever of the incident. I also have received a copy of the notifications made by Emergency Communications Center (ECC). From that I discovered that Jeffrey Blackwell was left a voice mail and that Mayor Cranley’s cell phone was disconnected. I have had several phone conversations with a Records Section Supervisor. The first asking for clarification on several items, which I provided. The second phone conversation was the same as the first, asking for clarification on the same items (logs and email) as the first. I did not feel as if I was making much progress so I decided I would, once again, email the assistant police chiefs with more specific questions. I asked:<\/p>\n