By Adam Swift
The City Council’s health and human services subcommittee is expected to take up a motion that would see the city make police data and records more readily accessible to the public.
Last week, Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley requested the council hold a public hearing on an ordinance requiring the publication of certain records of the police department.
“I did this motion to try to bring some awareness to the constituents who call me,” said Kelley. “There used to be, in days gone past, the police blotter published in local papers. We no longer do that, and I just want to try to bring some awareness, even if it is general information regarding break-ins or things like that.”
Kelley said she would like to see the statistics and information on crime published on a readily accessible area of the Revere.org website.
She did request the ordinance go to subcommittee to make sure there is no risk of liability to the city from publishing certain information.
Councillor-at-Large Juan Pablo Jaramillo said he would like the health and human services subcommittee take up the ordinance, rather than the public safety subcommittee.
“I would like us to really look at this issue with a human lens if we are going to be posting public information,” he said.
Kelley noted that the intention of her ordinance is not to publish names and addresses from the department’s police log.
“This would be more a very general classification of what is going on to bring people some awareness,” said Kelley. “They would know if there was a break-in two streets over from (them) or if something happened. It seems like people in the community can’t get any information like that at all.
“I am not looking to publish names or anything specific, it would be a more general type of data that I would want to bring awareness to.”
Councilor-at-Large Marc Silvestri agreed that he would not want to see the names of public accused of crimes published, but that providing general crime statistics and information would be beneficial for the community.
