03/20/2008
The Valley Reporter is changing its policy on reporting incidences of DWI in the newspaper. Effective April 3, the paper will begin running reports received from the Vermont State Police and Washington County Sheriff's Department which will provide details of DWI arrests and stops.
Since its inception and until now, The Valley Reporter has not run DWI reports unless they occurred as part of an accident report with property damage resulting. The reason for this change in policy, according to editor Lisa Loomis, is to let the public know about the number and frequency of DWI stops/arrests.
"The police have recently notified The Valley that they feel there are too many incidents of DWI in The Valley. In order for the public to gauge the problem, we will be providing details of the numbers, times and places of arrests," Loomis said.
The reports will appear on Page 2 of The Valley Reporter with the regular police reports and will appear in list form with dates, locations, times and BAC (blood alcohol counts) as reported by law enforcement officers.
The Valley Reporter will use as its source for this material only press releases routinely issued by the Vermont State Police and Washington County Sheriff's department.
The names of alleged offenders will not be used, but details such as age, sex and hometown will be published.
