Communication Breakdown
EDITORIAL

The public has a right to know.

The Nantucket Police Department decided to wait two full days before issuing a press release detailing the horrendous alleged sexual assault that took place over the weekend on Bartlett Road and we are concerned by this.

With a dangerous criminal on the loose, the public is not served by the police withholding vital information.

We certainly understand the need for discretion in a sensitive case such as this, but the need for the community to know about a sexual predator walking our streets outweighs the need for the police to keep silent, fearing any information let out of the department will compromise the investigation.

It is a stretch to believe an alleged rapist thinks he is not being sought, until he reads about himself in the newspaper.

In that same vein, the Nantucket Police Department sent out an e-mail last Friday announcing a "press conference" to be held tomorrow to discuss the results of an in-house investigation concerning an altercation between a white summer special police officer and a group of young black youths on Broad Street last summer.

We first requested a copy of this report last Thursday.

The results of this almost year-long investigation were released to the Boston attorney of one of the young men in late June.

On Monday, Police Chief William Pittman refused to release the 300-page report or even comment on the recommendations made in the report.

While we commend the Nantucket Police Department for conducting such a comprehensive investigation, we fail to see why the report was not released to the public when the investigation was concluded in March, or in June when it was given to the attorney who represented the minority youth, or last week, when we requested it.

Whatever happened to Community Policing?

"Community Policing requires police and citizens to join together as partners in the course of both identifying and effectively addressing these issues (crime and social disorder)," according to the U.S. Department of Justice Web site.

The community is a vital partner in how policing is done. So engage the community more, Chief, and get the information out.