RiverheadLOCAL has been unable to publish its daily police blotter feature since the first week of the month, when the Riverhead Police Department stopped providing sufficient information to compile the report.
On May 7, Riverhead Police implemented a new software system used by the department to log incidents and calls. Since then, the desk officer has been unable to produce the daily press report previously provided to reporters, which contained information on daily police activity, including the date, time and locations of incidents, the nature of the incident and, typically, a short description of the incident provided by an officer.
Beginning May 7, the department has been able to provide only a list of incidents containing minimal information. The list contains date, time and address of the incidents, but the incident types are indicated only by codes and no further information is provided. An excerpt from the document we obtained yesterday appears below.
Police Chief David Hegermiller said on May 8 that this situation is temporary and a new version of the daily press report would soon be available for distribution. The new version would provide the basic information needed to compile a report for readers, he said, though the department was still unable to include the officer’s notes for the incidents. The officer’s notes, referred to by the department as the “return” usually indicate the result of the call — for example, an arrest made, a summons issued, an incident documented, etc. Hegermiller said the department was working on including the “returns” on the report.
During a meeting on May 23, Hegermiller said the department was still working on it and a new version of the report with adequate information would be available soon, perhaps as soon as the next day. In the meantime, Hegermiller said, the press would be given the list of incidents as well an arrest report.
As of May 28, Riverhead Police Department desk officers still tell us the list of incidents is the only document they are authorized to release. We have not been able to obtain the arrest report the police chief said would be available to us as of May 24.
As a result of these changes, we have been unable to publish the daily blotter since the report for May 6.
As soon as a new version of the press report is available that provides information sufficient to merit publication, we will resume publication of the daily blotter.
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