Phoenix Police to Begin Withholding Info in Crime Reports

By: Phoenix police will now withhold basic information about victims and criminals in reports released to the public, saying they want to prevent identity theft.

Police said Wednesday that withheld information will include birth dates of criminals, addresses where crimes occur and the names of injured victims. They will be completely redacted from the written public record in some cases.

City attorneys advised the department to make the policy shift, saying the idea is to balance Arizona public-records law with a newer state statute that cites the government's obligation to secure residents from identity thieves.

Phoenix police say they will immediately begin identifying criminal suspects by name, age and race only ? not by date of birth, even if they are booked into jail. Victims' dates of birth also will be withheld.

"In general, the names of victims are eligible to be released, however, there will be exceptions," Phoenix Sgt. Andy Hill said in a letter to members of the news media.

The city began reviewing how to restrict the public flow of personal identifying information in 2007, Phoenix Assistant City Attorney Sandra Hunter said.

Hunter said information that "has nothing to do with the business of the police department," public safety or public-records law will likely be stricken from the written record.

"If it's exclusively private, we'll do our best to protect it," Hunter said.

Hunter doesn't know of any lawsuit against Phoenix or any specific concerns among residents about public records leading to identity theft.

She said the policy shift is designed to avoid identity-theft claims before they happen.

Beckie Miller, who leads the Phoenix chapter of the national nonprofit Parents of Murdered Children, said she understands the need to withhold information.

"From the victim's perspective, each one of those things traumatizes them more when (the media) doesn't get it right," she said.

The decision could meet with resistance from members of the media in the Phoenix area and from civic journalism advocates, said Tim McGuire, a journalism professor at Arizona State University and a former newspaper editor.

"In the case of suspects, I think it's a disaster to not include information like (dates of birth) because it's going to lead to the real danger of mistaken identity," McGuire said.