• Have you noticed a change? Have you noticed a change? The Garden Island is now placing names in the Kaua‘i police blotter. This practice is a common practice in most newspapers in the United States, and a practice that
• Have you noticed a change?
Have you noticed a change?
The Garden Island is now placing names in the Kaua‘i police blotter. This practice is a common practice in most newspapers in the United States, and a practice that we feel is helpful to our community. We will omit names in some cases, for instance those charged with family abuse and any other types of incidents where it is necessary to veil the identity of a minor or minors who might be involved in such cases. But otherwise we will be reporting names issued in the reports prepared by the Kaua‘i Police Department. It is important to remember that those arrested are innocent until proven guilty. Those named in the police blotter have been arrested, but are usually yet to be arraigned before a judge, or tried by a judge or jury.
Adding a name to a police blotter report gives the incident full coverage. We feel omitting names from the police blotter is a disservice to the community, and means we are offering a report that is incomplete.
A caller to The Garden Island told us recently that he was pleased to see the names being added. He said his name appeared over a minor incident years ago in the newspaper, and that having his name appearing in print in that manner embarrassed him to the point of taking care of the problem, resulting in it never happening again.
Enhancing the police blotter is but one change coming in the near future to The Garden Island. All are aimed at increasing our coverage of the communities of Kaua‘i, and at making The Garden Island the voice of the community on the many important issues of the day.
Reader input is welcomed on our use of names in the police blotter and other enhancements we are planning to the newspaper.
