Victims of crime, do you HAVE to be identified?

[waloidian]

Lets say you shoot and kill a robber, or kill someone committing a crime in public. Does your name and exact address have to be publicized in the newspaper or other public accord? Ive always wondered about this...mainly because there might be some form of 'revenge' from the criminals friends/family.

 

[melensdad]

In the newspaper? No. The freedom of the press allows it to be published, it is up to the editor. Rarely will it be published.

There are probably court documents which, through the Freedom of Information Act, may possibly accessed??? Of that I am not sure. If the DA considers it a justified shoot then there would not be any court papers, but clearly there would be a police report. Again, not sure if there is a way to access those records.

 

[pmpmstrb]

My guess would be that if you were named in a police report it could be published or accessed since it would be public record.

 

[sloughfoot]

Lets say you shoot and kill a robber, or kill someone committing a crime in public. Does your name and exact address have to be publicized in the newspaper or other public accord? Ive always wondered about this...mainly because there might be some form of 'revenge' from the criminals friends/family.

In my community, in this specific type of situation, a press release is created by an Officer almost immediately so the press has the basic info on the situation. No official reports are made available to the press at least until the investigation is complete.

If the shooting is justifiable and a request is made for the report, the names and addresses are blacked out before being provided to the press.

However, revenge from the friends/family of a hardcore criminal is nothing you should ignore and is very real. It is why off duty and retired Police Officers should always be armed and alert.

 

[Captain Bligh]

I think your chances of maintaining anonymity would be better with the general public than with the victim's family.

I"ve seen our local press not release the name of a shooter in a shooting determined to be justified upon investigation.

At the same time, there are good odds that the victim's family (yes, they are going to see their perp realtive as your "victim") is going to file or at least look into filing a civil suit against you. Their attorney will access the police report via discovery and your identity will be known to the victim's family. No two ways about it.

 

[zcam630]

My wife and I had a somewhat similar situation last winter. Our car was broken into while we were at the gym. The perp stole her purse, wallet, cell phone, etc. The guy was able to go and buy over $1000.00 of stuff at the Meijers. Long story short we were quite upset that the perp was able to use my wifes bank card to make a purchase with out being asked any questions.e

We contacted the Noblesville news paper to let them know about the story to try and inform others of the problem of merchants not asking to see id.

Anyway the reporter came to our house and did the interview. She then told us that she wanted a pic for the article. We immediatly refused as we did not want our picture in the paper. My wife was worried that the perp might try to come to the house since he had our address. Being that I work 24hr shifts I felt that her concern was valid. The reporter became very rude and said that we had wasted her time and that her boss would not run the article with out a pic.

I guess that the newspapers are not always there to report the news and inform people.

Geesh.

(Sorry for being so long winded)

 

[zlittell]

that is a touchy and scary situation... since most people shot and killed legally are criminals they usually have criminal friends and family. they might want to give honor to their "homies" with more than a little beer poured out.

-zack-