Starting today, police will no longer make public the
residential address of people who are arrested, the Dispatch
learned. The move spawned questions of whether residents have a
right to know if criminals are living in their neighborhood.
Starting today, police will no longer make public the residential address of people who are arrested, the Dispatch learned. The move spawned questions of whether residents have a right to know if criminals are living in their neighborhood.
In the past, the arrest log at the Gilroy Police Department contained information on where people who are arrested lived. However, Thursday morning, people in the records division were instructed to take a black permanent marker to all information about arrestees except their names and birthdays, a source said.
As a result, arrest sheets concerning Wednesday arrests were almost half redacted Friday. In particular, police blacked out information about the arrestees’ address, city of residence, phone number, employer, emergency contact and identifying marks – such as scars and tattoos.
The change means that residents will no longer be able to find out whether they live near an arrested party unless that person registers as a drug or sex offender.
When contacted immediately after discovering the policy change, Sgt. Jim Gillio said he was not aware of any policy change and would look into it.
