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Police incident reports now must be made available in Mississippi

Police in Mississippi now must provide basic incident reports daily, including the offense, suspects and where and when a crime took place. According to news reports, compliance was been mixed Tuesday when the new law went into effect.

Twenty years ago it was routine for police to provide incident reports every morning for reporters and others to look through. Gradually that information has been taken away nationwide. Now it takes laws to bring back that basic access. If your state doesn't require basic incident reports to be made public, then follow Mississippi and get your law changed.
Published Thursday, July 03, 2008 12:31 AM by DavidCuillier

Comments

# re: Police incident reports now must be made available in Mississippi

Friday, July 04, 2008 3:12 PM by Mississippi Newswriter
As a longtime journalist in Mississippi, I can say we may lag behind in some things but we eventually catch up. This new law still needs some tweaking, but by and large it has been well received.
Where I am in Scott County, Miss., we are very fortunate to have a great relationship with most of the law enforcement agencies in our county. Of course, some are better than others.
Our current police chief and sheriff has had an open door policy for as long as I have been here - about 5 years.
At the same time, this new law will help us in at least one community where the law enforcement leaders have been less than cooperative. We will see what happens.
Our challenge in Mississippi now is informing law enforcement officials across the state on the local level about the new law in a respectful yet firm manner.
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