Should juveniles’ names be published?

Six years ago I responded to a reader complaint that The Gazette was the only newspaper that published the names of 10 year olds accused of crimes.

Recently another reader complained that The Gazette published the name of a 14-year-old resident at a Four Oaks residential treatment facility in Independence. The resident was charged in Juvenile Court with attacking a facility staffer and attempted murder. A Four Oaks statement was quoted stating that the child had mental health issues.

The reader argued that 'there was no danger to the public” justifying naming the child and 'disclosing a mental illness doubly compromised privacy.” No decision had been made to charge the juvenile in adult court.

The 2008 state statute making the names of all juveniles over the age of 10 at the time of the arrest a public record still applies. A Juvenile Court judge can still order the name sealed during the proceeding if confidentiality is in the best interests of the person and the public.

The judge also still is required to seal the court records at the person's request after they reach 18 years old. Two years must also have passed since the last official action in the case. The person must not have been convicted of certain other criminal offenses. The person cannot have been sentenced in adult court after their 18th birthday.

On July 1 that sealing court record process was changed by the Legislature. The judge will now automatically review these records rather than waiting for the person to request a review.

The legislature change also requires the Department of Public Safety to review and remove from its computer storage system a record of a juvenile's arrest or being taken into custody when there was no disposition after two years unless there is an outstanding arrest warrant or detainer. But we know that juveniles' names remain in those Internet search engine databases after the juvenile record is removed from the state criminal database or the original news story has been deleted from the newspaper's archives.

At the Organization of News Ombudspersons' annual meeting this year, a major topic was the need for standards to delete stories from news archives. A common request comes from a person charged with a crime reported in the paper or online. The charge was later dismissed but not reported. The news report of the charge remains on the Internet; but there is no reference to the dismissal.

Juvenile Court systems exist because we recognize that the conduct of some minors should be treated differently than the conduct of adults. News organizations recognize that the digital world does not know how, or else chooses not to implement how, to put the genie of a juvenile's name back in the bottle.

News organizations need to include these realities in developing policies for using the names of juveniles whether or not the juvenile record is public.

MEDIA QUESTION?

l If you have an unresolved concern or question about Gazette or KCRG-TV9 news, opinion or online content, contact Judi Whetstine, Iowa Source Media Group's community advocate, at gaz.communityadvocate@gmail.com, or by mail to Community Advocate, The Gazette, 500 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401. Whetstine, not a Source Media Group employee, is a former assistant U.S. attorney in Cedar Rapids.