Beaufort County Sheriff's Office withholds crime reports

Incident reports -- summaries of criminal activity that occurs in Beaufort County --are being withheld from public review under a new Sheriff's Office policy that is being inconsistently applied.

Crime reports were not accessible Thursday or Friday at the Hilton Head Island substation and will not be available today or Sunday, according to a Sheriff's Office policy put in place Nov. 3. The new policy states that "incident reports will be available for review during normal office hours" -- 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.

The policy means that reports will be inaccessible on weekends, on days when other Beaufort County administrative offices are closed, or after hours on weekdays, according to Sheriff P.J. Tanner. Prior to the new policy, reports were available on Sundays and on some days when Beaufort County administrative offices were closed.Access to the reports on Saturdays ended several years ago.

As a result of the policy, reports of crime in southern Beaufort County will not be available for four consecutive days over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

The Sheriff's Office's new policy violates South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act, according to Jay Bender, a lawyer for the South Carolina Press Association. The Island Packet and its sister paper, The Beaufort Gazette, are member of the press association.

Bender said Friday that government agencies must provide access to public records when a citizen appears in person and requests them during the agency's operating hours.

Bender said that because the Sheriff's Office operates around the clock, the public -- which includes reporters -- should have prompt access to crime reports every day.

"Their hours of operation are 24-7," he said of the Sheriff's Office. "They don't close on holidays... . The reports should've been made available."

Tanner said his office complies with the FOI law: "Our policies mirror the law itself," he said.

In the past, when crime reports were accessible on weekends, Tanner said, "we were going over and above what the law requires us to do."

The absence of crime news in the media on days when reports are withheld will not leave residents uninformed about crime in the area, Tanner said.

"If there's anything that's a threat to public safety, we automatically send (a release) out," he said. "I guess you have to take our word on that."

On Friday, the newest wrinkle in the policy appeared -- denying access to crime reports on days when other Beaufort County government offices are closed. When an Island Packet reporter stopped by the Sheriff's Office substation on Hilton Head Island at about 2 p.m., a clerk refused to let her see the reports.The clerk said she had to check with a senior deputy first. She said she called Lt. Glenn Zanelotti, the supervisor for the Sheriff's Office southern division. Zanelotti told the clerk not to release the reports, she said.

The reporter then telephoned Tanner, who said the reports would not be released because the office was closed. The law requires reports to be released only during "normal business hours," he said.

A few minutes later, Tanner told the reporter to return to the Sheriff's Office substation to see if the records clerk still was there. If she was, there was a possibility the reports could be released, he said. The employee had already left, however.

Bender said the fact that the clerk was in the substation when the reporter initially visited makes it clear that the Sheriff's Office was open, thus the reports should have been given to the reporter.

"If the clerk was working, then the office is open," Bender said. "The reports should have been made available."

In Beaufort, a reporter for the Gazette also tried to check crime reports for the northern part of the county on Friday. He stopped by the Sheriff's Office at about 3 p.m. but was told the reports were only availablefrom 9 a.m. to noon -- a rule not in place until now.

Friday evening, Tanner said he was unsure why there was a discrepancy in the new policy between the northern and southern parts of the county.

The policy also has been applied inconsistently in another respect. On Thursday, a reporter for the Gazette was given access to reports for northern Beaufort County, but on Hilton Head, reports were not available. The same thing happened on Sunday, Nov. 16 -- a day when the new policy called for the reports to be withheld: They were unavailable on Hilton Head, but available in Beaufort.

"It looks like they're making up rules as they go along," Bender said.