Starting April 12, The Forecaster, American Journal and Lakes Region Weekly will no longer publish police logs online. The logs will continue to appear in print.
We publish police logs as a public service to keep readers informed about occurrences in their neighborhoods, and we feel this is a useful tool to have in our print product.
However, online search tools such as Google have made it easy to look up a person’s history, including any record of arrest, simply by typing in a name.
Frankly, it’s unfair that misdemeanor offenses such as shoplifting, driving with an expired license or trespassing should continue to haunt a person online five, 10 or even 20 years after the fact. We believe this new policy strikes a balance between serving the public interest for the reader and fairness for those whose names appear in the police log.
As always, thank you for reading.
John Swinconeck
Executive Editor, The Forecaster, Lakes Region Weekly, American Journal
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