JONESBORO, Ark. – In an afternoon statement to the press and the public, Mayor Harold Perrin said that he had instructed Jonesboro police to release all incident reports online to the public.
NEA Report has confirmed that will still not take place on the weekends.
“Step 1 is that I have instructed that from here forward, all incident reports will be available to the public via the Jonesboro Police website, JonesboroPolice.com.” – Mayor Harold Perrin said in a larger statement.
The issue is, the mayor didn’t say when they would be available.
“Because our information director works 8a-5p Monday-Friday, reports will not be posted or emailed on the weekends,” said City Spokesman Bill Campbell to NEA Report. “However, all reports will be available at the station as they are approved on Saturday, Sunday, and holidays.”
However, reports are not approved over the weekend for release.
Not only that, but rarely are incident reports even assigned to a detective until Monday morning – even in cases of serious crimes. This was confirmed by a source at the city attorney’s office last year.
This means incident reports filed over the weekend will not be available to the public or to the press.
The statement also did not address the refusal by JPD to release incident reports that are classified as “under investigation.” These reports encompass most of the crimes the public would want to know about immediately, such as fugitives, rapes, and murder.
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