Following the death of a pedestrian in a crash on Burlington’s North Avenue earlier this month, the Burlington Police Department has decided not to release the name of the involved driver.
Police say the driver was following traffic laws and is traumatized by the accident. But the decision has drawn criticism from some who say it sets a concerning precedent that police can decide when privacy concerns outweigh the public’s right to know, in violation of the state’s public records law.
The Dec. 20 crash, which occurred around 5 p.m. on North Avenue near Poirier Place, led to the death of 61-year-old Jonathan Jerome of Winooski. The accident raised questions about delays in the planned installation of crosswalks on North Avenue, including one that is planned at the intersection where the crash occurred.
Mike Donoghue, the executive director of the Vermont Press Association and a longtime Burlington Free Press reporter, said the department’s decision not to release the driver’s name is in direct conflict with the state’s public records law.
“If police are going to start picking and choosing what information they give out, that defeats the whole purpose of the public records act the Vermont Legislature approved,” Donoghue said.
Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo addressed the issue in a lengthy Facebook post after the Burlington Free Press published a story on the concerns Saturday. He wrote that the driver, a young man, had been driving below the speed limit, was not distracted and was cooperative with the police afterwards.
“He was also very, very distraught,” del Pozo wrote. “It was difficult to witness his pain and it was clear he was going to need some time to process what happened.”
In an interview, the chief said: “Our sensibilities are if you accidentally take a life and you’re not found to be at fault we’d like there to be some time before the world is reading about you in the newspaper.”
He said the law required the police to do what they can to protect victims, which he said the driver was along with the pedestrian killed.
“I don’t begrudge the press saying we’re not comfortable with this judgement, but apparently a lot of Vermonters prefer to have their news delivered this way,” del Pozo said, referring to the outpouring of support he’s gotten on social media.
“This is part of an evolving understanding what being compassionate to people means,” he said.
The department is required to submit a completed report to the state Department of Motor Vehicles within 30 days of the accident, which will include the driver’s name. The state DMV makes accident reports public.
Because police didn’t issue a ticket or arrest the driver, which would have produced public records, the department decided not to release his name under provisions of Vermont law that require protecting the identities of victims and witnesses, del Pozo wrote.
Donoghue said that while he understands these fatal accidents are traumatic, trauma is not an exception in the public records.
“There is a reason why they call them public records, it is so the public, which are the employers of the law enforcement officers, can in fact oversee what they are doing,” he said.
Donoghue said he thought it was ironic the crash and the subsequent refusal to release the driver’s name came only weeks after Winooski police released the name of the driver involved in a similar fatal crash involving a pedestrian.
Del Pozo wrote that while he understood Donoghue’s general concerns, the decision was made to minimize the pain of the accident and it would not lead to a department trend of gratuitously withholding names from the press.
Since the BPD is required to send the accident report to the state within 30 days of the crash, the driver’s name will likely become public if the media decide to publish it, del Pozo wrote.
“The Burlington Police Department, however, feels it doesn’t have an obligation to accelerate that, especially if it will further traumatize someone who is, in a real way, another victim of this fateful accident on North Avenue,” del Pozo wrote.
There were 144 comments on del Pozo’s Facebook post, almost all saying they understood and agreed with the chief’s decision.
Donoghue said he appealed the decision to the Burlington Police Commission, the board that oversees the management of the department. He said he is concerned that the department’s picking and choosing of what information they release could lead to a slippery slope.
“Police should not be deciding what is news,” he said. “When the news media calls up and asks questions, they should surely answer.”
Ed Note: Reporter Mark Johnson contributed to this story.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington police won’t reveal name of driver in fatal pedestrian crash.