Opinion: The Virginia Beach Police Department should change practices that leave citizens, media in the dark

Ed. — From the Sunday, Oct. 2, print edition.

VIRGINIA BEACH — I recently told a Virginia Beach Police Department spokesperson my company email doesn’t seem to work with a form the department requires when a journalist wants to ask questions.

I’d brought up the apparent glitch at the beginning of the year, but I haven’t reached out to VBPD much in 2022. 

I like writing about public safety. Sometimes we cover difficult stuff, but we also write about crime prevention and when officers win awards.

Over the past month, I’ve asked about two incidents and why basic information wasn’t promptly released to the press or citizens. VBPD responded to some questions but ignored others. One it skipped: Why did police who found a body in Sandbridge on a Friday wait until the following Tuesday to release an official statement about the discovery?

Instead of explaining the delay, a spokesperson reminded me about the form to fill out and noted other journalists seem to complete it just fine.

Several days later, I’m still gobsmacked by this wrongheaded response, a small example of a bigger breakdown.

VBPD isn’t swiftly providing information to the public about its work, crime and incidents in our city. It isn’t effectively responding to the press. These aren’t new problems, and they will hurt the department in the long run and leave the rest of us in the dark. 

This summer, the department switched to encrypted communication, which means scanner enthusiasts and reporters can’t always follow what police are doing. There are reasons police want to keep some information to themselves, but there are also transparency concerns when VBPD doesn’t have consistent standards and procedures for what it tells citizens or the press.

Secrecy guts trust, a thing police need these days. That I’m the one telling you this should say something. I’d much rather be writing about police getting attaboys.

We’re three years removed from a mass shooting at the municipal center, two years from unrest at the Oceanfront and a year past an officer-involved shooting that drew local scrutiny and eyeballs around the U.S. 

These events still reverberate. 

Relatively smaller public safety issues need sunlight, too, because they are massive to the individuals and communities they touch. People want to know what happens when it happens, even if police can’t release every little detail. Citizens need police to slap a steak on the table when it comes to putting out public information. When we get anything, it reminds me of a term I first heard in the Navy.

It’s a soup sandwich.

In late August, someone crashed and died along a rural road in the heart of the area our newspaper covers. VBPD identified the person about two weeks later, as best I can tell, because I asked. My Pungo neighbors knew who it was pretty quick, but VBPD released nothing I can find beyond an initial barebones description of the incident. So I followed up. VBPD provided only the identification and a reminder.

“Please remember we are using the Google form for information requests.”

The mindset of VBPD is not on any individual officer or midlevel supervisor. This a leadership issue. The brass has either encouraged or allowed a shortcoming that is regularly discussed among reporters and public affairs professionals. I’m told the VBPD matter came up during a regional meeting at which municipal flacks and newshounds cooperatively tackle issues.

I reached out to the city. VBPD would not discuss specifics, calling some of my questions “nuanced” while ignoring some pretty direct questions. Police Chief Paul Neudigate wouldn’t speak with me. City Manager Patrick Duhaney declined, as well.

The department is bringing on a new public information officer who was scheduled to start this past week. I am glad to hear it, but the best hire ever won’t dent an organization that doesn’t want to buy in. VBPD is an organization that won’t answer questions about the questions it won’t answer.

On Monday, Sept. 26, I got an email from police Lt. Brad Wesseler, the executive aide to Neudigate. The department’s communications office reports to Wesseler, according to an organizational chart, and he’s been copied on recent emails in which I used what I thought was blunt language. 

“It has been very challenging to keep up with the voluminous demand for information with a diminished workforce,” Wesseler wrote, “but the good news is we have finally hired a chief communications officer for the department that starts this week.”

Wesseler told me the new hire has experience and expertise. Both good things.

“One of the goals that the chief has tasked her with is assessing our current capabilities and processes in our communications office and to make recommendations on improvements where warranted,” the lieutenant wrote. “I’m sure once she gets settled into her new role, she will welcome an opportunity to sit down and discuss your concerns so we can continue our valued partnership with your organization.”

I’d sent a list of questions to the city communications team on Friday, Sept. 23, after earlier emails and a couple phone calls. Among other things, I suggested leadership — meaning, at the very least, Neudigate — sit down with local reporters and have a meaningful talk. That should still happen, whether or not a “valued partner” such as The Independent News gets an invite.

We went to press for this edition on Thursday, Sept. 29. As of this writing, a couple emails from Wesseler are the only responses I have from the city. They don’t address the substance of my concerns. 

I’ll follow up if I can, but so far it’s been more of the same from the VBPD. 

“Many of your questions and issues are very nuanced, and thus cannot be answered with simple yes or no replies,” Wesseler wrote in a follow-up email that also skipped the substance and specifics of my questions.

He reiterated the department wants its new person to come in and have a look around, and then VBPD might be in a better position to respond. One person cannot change this unless that person is the chief. Or maybe the person who hired him.

Journalists have less say covering law enforcement than people understand. Police control information about their work. Not everything makes the news or goes to court. If police don’t say, you may not know. When they hold back, reasonable people wonder why. There are times holding back on some things makes sense, but transparency means you explain why you’re doing that and release what you can.

Many folks are reasonable about certain constraints, even reporters. But you can’t expect anybody to trust you when your default setting seems to be, at best, doing the bare minimum or, at worst, secrecy.

I want to trust VBPD as a straight-talking institution the way I trust many of the officers I’ve met over the years. There are great people in this police department. I’m not suggesting otherwise by writing this.

When you trust somebody — or, in this case, an organization — you might go out of your way for them. When we don’t maintain healthy relationships, there’s no trust. Nobody puts anything in the bank for your tough times. Even in a safe city with good police, tough times come. Virginia Beach knows it as well as any other place.

We’re also talking about a city government that claims it’s an open book. With VBPD transmissions now encrypted, the press and citizens know less about what’s happening. Can VBPD responsibly administer greater control over what anybody who is not police gets to know about police?

In August, WAVY-TV’s Hayley Milon filed a report discussing some of the issues related to VBPD leaving publicly-accessible communications behind. Wesseler, quoted in WAVY’s story, spoke about the danger of personal information getting out via a scanner and bad guys tracking police.

Milon reported that WAVY learned of the 5/31 mass shooting by listening to the scanner. Then an editor confirmed it was a real event by reaching a VBPD spokesperson on their cell. What WAVY’s report doesn’t get into is that it’s no longer certain a reporter could get a police spokesperson on the phone to confirm something is unfolding.

“While 10 On Your Side doesn’t report directly from scanner transmissions, journalists gather information to confirm with authorities,” WAVY reported. “In Virginia Beach, the public still has access to EMS and the fire department’s transmissions, meaning if a violent crime occurs, the medical response is available. Police are typically called to a scene first before calling in medical assistance, meaning crews won’t get the news as quickly.”

The Virginia Press Assocation, of which The Independent News is an associate member, told WAVY that encrypting police scanners “would greatly diminish the media’s abily to cover breaking news.”

You may not care about journalists, but a department with a troubling record of holding on to information has greater control of what we know or don’t know about it.

VBPD needs to change. Until it does, nobody at City Hall should act surprised when something happens, police clam up and reporters with empty notepads look elsewhere. Meanwhile, keyboard warriors on social media will pump rumor into an information void. They don’t fill out forms.

At least reporters ask questions of agencies we cover before we type.

The author is the editor and publisher of The Independent News. He has worked in military public affairs, including as a trainer, and has taught college public relations classes. He has covered public safety in Virginia Beach for The Virginian-Pilot and this newspaper and covered police departments in other cities in New York and Virginia. Reach him by calling (757) 502-5393 or emailing jhd@princessanneindy.com.

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