By Ken Robinson

Managing Editor

Mel and Leena, who are loyal readers, wrote to ask where the police reports are “that used to inform what was going on in westside communities”.

A couple of months ago, our access to police blotters in both King County and Seattle were limited by those police departments.

Burien got a new chief so we emailed him to ask why the redacted reports had stopped coming. (A volunteer, a lady who was not a cop, was sending the reports with permission from the chief.) The new chief suggested we contact an information officer downtown. We did and got a single report the next week. Since then, nothing.

Same with Seattle. They have their own abbreviated reporting system that reveals details of a few police incidents.

The fact is, there are far more crimes of all categories that take place daily than any newspaper cold find room to print.

We are hopeful that in the new year the cops will see fit to share elements of the blotter  as they have in the past at least in a demonstration that they are actively working on solving crimes.