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Originally Posted by molson
It's no different than any other criminal inquiry. That's one of the few types of government records that's fully exempted from public record request laws.
I was surprised the St. Louis DA's office was this blunt about it:
"St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch said Wednesday that details about the Brown shooting would not be released any time soon. He urged anyone with information to come forward and promised that every piece of evidence would be reviewed, presented to a grand jury and eventually made public.
By withholding details from the public during the criminal inquiry, investigators would be better able to gauge witnesses’ credibility, he said"
It's a criminal investigation, the officer is being investigated for criminal conduct. I know people get understandably frustrated when stuff with officers, (or with self-defense cases like Zimmerman/Martin) take more time than we're used to seeing for regular crimes. But they do take longer and it makes sense why. The inquiry isn't just about the facts of what happened, but also about whether the force that was obviously used was reasonable under all of the circumstances. You don't have to make those kinds of determinations in cases without police force and without self-defense components, so those things happen much faster.
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These are very fair points.
Still, in this day and age where everyone has access to twitter and a cell phone camera, and local government records are probably not all that secure--the local authorities are in a tough situation in terms of balancing protecting due process while maintaining control of the narrative (for example, in several of these cases, explaining why the policies they have implemented are justified especially in the situations like the journalist arrests, where citizen rights appear to be infringed).
The local leadership does not appear to be doing a good job of the later, and it is potentially hurting their ability to maintain the moral authority necessary to resolve the situation on their terms.