Send any questions you have to editor Tony Saxon at [email protected]
Q: How come sometimes I see the names of arrested people in stories and other times I don't?
A: We receive daily press releases from the Guelph Police Service and the Wellington County OPP detachment.
Guelph Police no longer include the names of charged people as part of their policy unless they feel it is in the interest of public safety. They used to and will do on occasion. They are not obligated to report names although technically, it is public information. We would have to attend the courthouse each day to get names.
The OPP does include the names of individuals charged. Different policy than the city police. Most notably impaired driving charges, where they feel publishing names acts as a deterrent.
Village Media, our parent company, has discussed, and continues to discuss, what is the best course of action in these matters. Do people charged with speed racing on the Hanlon Expressway (OPP territory) deserve to have their names on the internet forever whereas someone who might have committed a much more serious crime on a city street not?
It's something we are working on to come up with a policy that maintains the public's right to know while at the same time perhaps not saddling an individual with an internet presence that could affect their lives when it was a relatively minor incident.
