Was the Waynesboro Police Department ever going to go public with news of the rash of vehicle break-ins that included at least two belonging to Albemarle County Police Department officers?
It would seem that the public should know that what we eventually learned from a public information officer in Albemarle County – that the list of items taken from the ACPD vehicles parked in Waynesboro included a police rifle, ammunition and a police vest.
I once got to shoot with a .223 rifle at a citizens police academy; the idea that one of those bad boys is floating around in the hands of whatever goon or goons was pilfering through people’s cars this week isn’t a good one.
The idea that at least one ACPD officer living here in Waynesboro left a rifle, ammunition and a vest in a police cruiser parked on the street isn’t a good one, either.
Is that why the Waynesboro PD kept the break-in news on the down low?
To protect the shield?
What about those of us out here who pay your salaries?
ICYMI
- Waynesboro: Why is the PD keeping a local crime spree on the down low?
- Is the Waynesboro vehicle break-in story that we reported something bigger?
We here at AFP have been raising issues with the policy of the Waynesboro Police Department regarding dissemination of public information for years now.
It’s been a few years since the PD here stopped sending news releases to the local media, telling us, when we pressed, that they find it to be difficult to keep up with the comings and goings of media members, and if we want to keep up, just follow the Waynesboro Police Department page on Facebook.
Not that the press-release approach is the be all, end all, but the folks in Augusta County, Albemarle County, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Staunton, the Virginia State Police, have figured out how to keep in touch with those of us in the local media, which, in turn, helps us keep our readers informed.
I mean, that’s what we’re here for.
All of the above also still use social media as an additional resource, on top of what we in the local media try to do.
As a citizen, I’m all for, any way, every way, just tell us what’s going on.
To that end, the Waynesboro Police Department Facebook page still has nothing about this rash of vehicle break-ins; the way we found out was, one of our staffers is signed up for Ring alerts, and got a Ring alert about this one, and forwarded it to me, so that I could try to track it down.
Because we went on to write about the break-ins, we got a news tip from a reader about there being something to do with this with Albemarle County Police.
The tip seems to have overstated the extent – the report that we got was that “over a dozen Albemarle County Police vehicles were broken into (at) the officers’ homes,” and that “(m)ultiple unsecured full auto M16 rifles, loaded magazines, tactical gear, toughbook computers, and police reports with private information were stolen.”
At least officially, “over a dozen” is actually “two,” and the county government official who got back to us on the news denies that police reports or computers were taken.
To that point: I asked police in Waynesboro and Albemarle County multiple times on Friday and Saturday to address the news tip, which I gave them in full, and no one at either PD debunked the original report – that only came after I initiated a back-and-forth with the county government’s executive leadership team, which took a while to get me the answer, but eventually did, and thanks to them for doing that.
In the county’s defense, the crimes didn’t happen in their jurisdiction; the Waynesboro folks are the ones who dropped the ball here, and are continuing to do so.
They’re still not acknowledging anything publicly; the Facebook page that they tell us to go for the latest news from the PD, at this writing, is dated June 5 – nine days ago – a travel advisory about Hiker Fest, which took place on June 6.
Several vehicles were broken into, at least two of them were police vehicles from a neighboring jurisdiction, and a police rifle and ammunition were among the items taken – and our police department’s approach to this is, please disperse, nothing to see here.
Yeah, only because y’all are keeping things that we have a right to know about under wraps.
If I’m on the Waynesboro City Council, gotta tell you, I’m voting in favor of a resolution directing my city manager to in turn direct his police chief to join the rest of the 21st century in terms of transparency – and if somebody in that chain of command doesn’t want to play ball, wish them well in their future endeavors.
Hint, hint.
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Chris Graham
