Riverfront Civic Association which is the area between the Jordan and the
Lehigh River and the downtown section of Allentown known as the wards.
They are seeing a lack of transparency in news releases coming from city
hall in regards to law enforcement issues. He asked may he ask a
question and the simple one is does the city have a Police product that the
press has access to.
Attorney Charles Smith stated to Mr. Spang that this is an opportunity for
you to state your concerns. It is not a question and answer session.
Chief James Spang stated that he did not know if they could ask a question
or not. He stated that is basically where he is heading. He stated that
approximately two weeks ago in the 400 Block of Railroad Street, they had
a firearm incident involving some kind of automatic weapon where
neighbors down on the scene reported over 12 rounds were fired of a rifle
type weapon. Numerous people were scared down there. The police did
respond, evidence was taken and it was no public report of this. Because
of the lack of having a real news media in the Lehigh Valley, they are
getting spooned fed news, not real news. The reason why he brought the
blotter up is in days gone by the press from The Morning Call will walk into
the police desk, read the blotter and ask questions about specific
complaints. They would report on it. Now, it seems that it is spoon fed.
Under Mike Moore, they used to get bulletins all the time. There was an
armed robbery, there was a shooting, shots fired. That stuff was reported
and the neighbors knew. He stated now here is triple concern. He stated
that they don't want people shooting up the neighborhood. They want to be
notified if something is happening in the neighborhood. By the time the 12
plus rounds story made it around the neighborhood, it was over 30 rounds.
That is what happens when you don't report the news. The incident
becomes word of mouth or becomes internet chatter. That is not only
dangerous for the citizens, it is dangerous for the police and dangerous for
the reputation of our community. Two weeks, no public bulletin and no
news release. He stated that they want to know why. He holds here a copy
of the Catasauqua Police Department Media Report which is about a week
up to date. They publish that they show every incident in Catasauqua.
Child custody issue happened on Second Street in Catasauqua on the 6th
of March at 17:20 in the evening. It identifies the incident. This should be
real time. He stated that we database all this stuff in a city-owned
computer paid by him and everybody in this room and paid by all of you.
That is a computerized record. It is automatically redactable. That you
don't give people's names out, unless they have been arrested and they are
on a public docket. That should be released to the community. The city of
Reading typed his address in and if he lived in Reading, he can find out
what happened within 24 hours. He encouraged City Council to look into it
under the Public Safety Committee and come up with guidelines to replace
the nonactive press in the Lehigh Valley with just community notifications
that would be given out in real time. People want to read it, they read it. If
they don't want to read it, they don't read it. He stated that he needs to