The Guelph Police Service is reviewing its policy of releasing all names of people charged with a crime.
A week ago the daily news release issued by Guelph Police suddenly stopped including names of those charged.
Guelph Police have released the names for many years. News organizations then decided whether or not to publish those names. Some did, others didn’t.
In some cases, such as protecting the identity of possible victims, names were not released.
But new police chief Gord Cobey said the force is reviewing how it handles the identities of people charged.
“It will definitely be a change,” Cobey said.
He added that police need to be aware of the ramifications of releasing a name of someone who has been charged but not convicted, both on the individual and their family.
“Police have to be mindful of the presumption of innocence,” Cobey said. “We want to make sure that all of our press releases are mindful of the public interest.
“Everything is founded upon the principle that we exist to serve the public and earn their trust, so our releases will be done in a public interest consideration all the time,” he said.
There will still be cases where names are released.
“There will always be public interest cases when it’s important that we release information. What we’re hoping to achieve is a thoughtful, informed, compassionate process via which we make the decision which cases are and which cases are not in the public interest.”
The Police Services Act gives some leeway on what information can and cannot be released.
Some forces choose to release names (Wellington County OPP still does) and some don’t.
Cobey said it’s about finding that balance between public interest/public safety and “informed, compassionate evaluation.”
Some OPP detachments recently started naming those charged with impaired driving as a ‘name and shame’ means of hopefully help deter people from drinking and driving.
“I am in no way commenting on what other forces are doing in regards to that …. But I would want any decisions we make to be data-based, informed decisions,” Cobey said.
He said at this time he is not aware of any data that backs up the ‘name-and-shame’ theory.
Cobey was asked that moving forward who decides what names get released? If it is a minor charge but involves a prominent person, or a police officer, would it be released?
He said that is part of the ongoing review.
“I think it would be too early to give you a direct answer to that,” Cobey said. “I don’t want to pre-determine in advance certain situations where we will always release the information or we will not.”
