It is my job to keep an eye on things. Misses B. and I manage an apartment complex. One Monday morning not to long ago I was driving past the front of the property and I noticed the guard rail had been damaged. Really damaged. This is no light weight wood or tubular steel rail. It is your standard heavy duty, keep your car from going over the cliff, state highway, we not messing around, serious business, guard rail. Put in to keep stray vehicles out of the overgrown blackberries and the creek beyond. Something had hit the rail hard. It was pushed back two to three feet. And six of the big wooden post that held it in place had been broken or split. It must have happened some time in the night. No one here had seen anything.
It's incident report time. Take pictures and get information from local law enforcement. I call the city police. They had no record of any response to an accident at my location. The road itself is the city limit so the fact that they didn't respond came as no surprise. They suggested the sheriff's office. The SO informed me that traffic enforcement on that particular stretch of road was was the responsibility of the Highway Patrol.
I dialed up the local office of the state police.
"I would like some information about a traffic accident."
The nice lady asked when and where the accident happened. I explained that I knew where, but I wasn't sure when. She asked who I was and why I wanted to know. I identified myself and told her that the guard rail out front had been damaged and I wanted to be able to give a thorough report to my employer.
"What exactly do you want to know?"
I needed to find out when it happened, whether or not law enforcement had responded, who was involved, what type of vehicle could do that sort of damage, etc."
"Do you own the railing?"
This was a question I could not answer. I've only been here a short while. I wasn't present when it was built.
"Does it belong to the city or county?"
I think it is on our property but that is part the the city or county road system.
"An incident report will be sent to the owner."
I think that because I had said I wanted to know who was involved she had determined that giving me information would be a violation of someone's right to privacy. I felt I had a right to know at the very least whether or not the officers that work for the public had responded to an incident affecting my (the company's) property. Although it may of not damaged something belonging us it did happen on company property.
She seemed unwilling to give me any information what so ever. I did not feel like hassling about it. End of conversation.
It has been a similar story with other incidents that happen on the property. The police come out and take reports and arrest people for violent crimes. It is my job to know what goes on so that I can protect the residents from harm and the company from liability. When things like this happen I have to give the company an incident report and send corporate headquarters a copy of the police report if available.
When I request a report I am asked basically "What's it to you?". I tell them that I represent the owner of the property on which the incident took place. Someone down at the police station looks over my request for a report and tells me I do not have a valid reason for getting that information. All they are willing to give me is an "incident screen". It only says they got a call and came out. The CHP would not even give me that. People's right to privacy etc.
This privacy thing has given law enforcement carte-blanche to go anywhere, do anything and say to the public, "We are not going to tell you where we have been, when we were there or what we did while we were on your property." If someone wants to create a police state a major hurdle has been overcome. Police accountability to the public is a thing of the past. A happy memory of a better time when we were young and innocent and believed we had a right to know what our public servants were doing.
I don't usually add caveats to my post. In this case I must. I have the deepest respect our local law enforcement personnel. They have shown a great deal of professionalism and are always friendly and helpful. I want to thank them and all the men and women across the country who put on the uniforms and go out everyday to protect our lives and property. They deal with humanity at its worst. They get swore at, spit on, swung at and exposed to every sort of bodily fluid. They keep their cool under pressure, show good judgement and somehow keep a positive attitude. The next day they do it again.
It is not the various law enforcement agencies that have robbed the public of our right to know. It is the public itself and a misguided belief that "personal privacy" is the highest good that has forced us into a looking glass world of twisted logic.
OWL
January 20, 2006
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