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By Bob Weaver
The West Virginia State Police have responded to a Freedom of Information
request made on June 5th by The Hur Herald. The request was made after
Sgt. David Garrett of Spencer, supervisor of the Grantsville detachment,
failed to answer numerous phone calls or faxes requesting information about
police coverage in Calhoun County.
The Hur Herald said issues regarding police coverage in the county should
be public information, but police authorities declined to disclose policy or
release documents. They indicated the information was privy only to Calhoun
Control/911 as contained in a memo.
The Herald did print an "unauthorized" transcript of a May 10 memo, which
advised Calhoun Control that the State Police would no longer be taking
after hours calls. (SEE "State Police Will Not Answer After Hours Calls" May
11 in The Herald)
The agency also refused to release for public information the contents of a
May 18th memo rescinding the earlier policy. That memo, released through
the FOIA request, said "Please disregard my previous memo. There seems to
have been confusion regarding the same. The State Police will take any and
all calls given to them. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact
me. Thank you. Sgt. (John) Bonazzo."
The Herald used the FOIA to obtain "All copies, memos, policies or
departmental communications regarding the issue of 'after hours' coverage."
The information was forwarded to The Herald by Lt. Colonel C. G. White.
The Herald has expressed concern over the agencies stonewalling, and has
maintained public information issues should have been resolved quickly.
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