In a small town, news travels fast. When something happens, everyone knows about it in a few minutes. As cities grow larger, however, it becomes increasingly difficult to know what’s happening in your neighborhood and how that may affect your family.
That’s where technology can help. Now it’s possible for a city to not only have the heart of a small town but also to have a small town’s ability to know what’s going on. In Naperville, that technology has taken the form of a daily public safety incident map on the city’s website.
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On that map is a graphic representation of incident reports written by the police and fire departments. Each icon will allow citizens to learn why the police or firefighters were sent to that location and what type of incident, crime or traffic problem required them to go there.
Obviously, the amount of detail about the incident will be limited, and the names and addresses of anyone arrested will be withheld pending any legal procedure that might be required. But you will no longer have to wonder why there are police cars in front of a house down the street or whether one of your neighbors has suffered an illness or other emergency.
What is perhaps more important is that it will allow the collective observations of the public to help in the difficult business of making sense of what’s happening around us. Depending on their individual knowledge and experience, some people may be able to identify connections or recognize patterns or trends where others, including trained professionals, may not.
That’s essentially a new analytical resource, one that’s enabled by a transparency that we have not experienced before. We believe that engaging the public in this way, and making government by the people more of a practical reality, is a good thing. It is, however, not enough.
The information on the map will be carefully controlled and may not contain everything the public deserves to know. Just as a news release is no substitute for an in-depth interview, encapsulated information on a map is no substitute for good reporting.
There are many reasons why individuals or public safety professionals may want to withhold information. Institutions may want to protect their image. Businesses may wish to guard their reputation. Officials may hope to avoid embarrassment or scrutiny.
And that’s why it’s vitally important Naperville police don’t view this new tool as a substitute for open communication with news organizations.
Journalists with the Naperville Sun and other local media outlets are here to ask questions that local residents are asking themselves when they peruse these bare-bones police reports.
The public has a right to know about things that affect the community and that may influence decisions about where to live, play and work. Often, that kind of information can be obtained only by careful inquiry and investigation.
There is no technological substitute for good reporting.
Naperville police officials have been slow to provide information in the past, making the argument that delicate situations require discretion. The city has made it challenging for journalists to cover breaking news such as crime or traffic crashes as they happen or at least while they are still news. They have displayed an unwillingness to answer questions. All of this — a hostile stance toward the people’s right to know — gives us pause as the department unveils its new tool, potentially just one more device for the government deciding what you need to know.
News organizations must continue to have access to — and the cooperation of — public safety officials. That’s the surest way to preserve one of our nation’s most precious resources, a free press.
As Naperville promotes its tool to deliver police news quickly and efficiently to residents, we urge officials to remember the role played by news organizations committed to serving the residents of Naperville. Many people are not glued to the internet looking for local news. Napervillians are busy and may not be perusing a police website to stay on top of what’s happening. Many still rely on local journalists to report the news and ask the questions they would ask if they were on the scene. That’s a role we have played for many decades, and it’s one we pledge to continue playing to serve our readers. We urge police to expand their commitment to transparency by sharing real-time information with the local press.