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« Comparative journalism | Main | Founding Fathers and faith »

Oct 22, 2006

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meblogin

People have been asking about Wray's version and I found this response from him dating back a few months at WFMY--http://www.wfmynews2.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=55149&provider=rss.

Statement By David Wray In Response To Mitchell Johnson's Statement Of January 10, 2006

In the statement made by the City Manager in the wake of my resignation, he raised issues concerning the investigation of Lt. Hinson. The City Manager also raised an issue concerning a purported "black book."

By way of background, the Special Intelligence Division of the Greensboro Police Department has existed since long before I became Chief. The investigation of Lt. Hinson arose out of information we received indicating the Lt. Hinson's name had come up in connection with another office's investigation of a target other than Lt. Hinson. We understood that Lt. Hinson was a person of interest in connection with that investigation. We did gather information concerning Lt. Hinton. We did use a tracker on Lt. Hinson's police vehicle. There was no tracker on Lt. Hinson himself and no tracker on his private vehicle. We did ultimately conduct an administrative investigation concerning Lt. Hinson, and a copy of this investigation and my findings was given to the City Attorney's office. I stand by the conclusions and recommendations I made in that report.

With respect to the existence of a purported "black book," I did hear rumors that a "black book" containing photos of all the black officers in the Greensboro Police Department has been assembled and was being used against these officers. This is not true.

A photo array was prepared in early 2005 following complaints by a confidential informant that an unknown black male in the Greensboro Police Department had groped and sexually assaulted her during an on-site strip search. This photo array was prepared by the Special Intelligence Investigators in a manner consistent with accepted photo array practices. The photo array included one photo of the 19 black make officers who could have been present based on time and assignment. It also included five other photos from DMV files for each of the 19 officers (a total of 114 photos). The photo array was placed in a black notebook. The photo array book was shown to the confidential informant, but she did not identify the officer in question.

The photo array was prepared as a case-specific document. The Special Intelligence Officer who prepared and used the book did not use it on any other occasions. Because the investigator considered the case still unresolved, he retained the photo array book as part of his case file.

The photo array was not destroyed. The photo array was not hidden. I did instruct that the book be secured. This photo array book was turned over to the City legal staff during their investigation in late 2005.

Jeffrey Sykes

Ed:

Great point about the myspace pages.

Sue

"Several members of Greensboro 101's advisory board resigned after proprietor Roch Smith Jr. allowed the document to be uploaded by an anonymous source without their explicit buy-in, and then refused to take it down even temporarily while the group discussed the legality and ethics of hosting the thing for public consumption."

I know you didn't talk to me prior to writing the above. Did you talk to Ben, Cara Michelle, or Jay? I don't think you even approach our real reasons with the above statement of "fact."

"buy-in" was never an issue. Letting an anon poster put it online was never the issue. Quoting an old election slogan and not dissing you personally, "it was the process, stupid."

Ed Cone

Sue, my description is of a sequence of events, not the individual thought processes of those who resigned.

I did read explanations of motives at various individual blogs.

Roch101

"buy-in" was never an issue. Letting an anon poster put it online was never the issue. Quoting an old election slogan and not dissing you personally, "it was the process, stupid." -- Sue

Sue, I think the process is what Ed was describing when he said you weren't given the opportunity to "buy-in." But you also cited reasons other than the process:

"Posting the report was not good for Greensboro or our Police Department."

and

"There are other important issues about which I will take a different stand and be willing to be sued or investigated, but this is just not one of them."

from: http://sue.polinsky.com/?m=20061016"

Sue

All of the above are pieces of the puzzle. My point is that it's more complex than any one thing. THe final sentence in my blog post that Roch cites is accurate -- and perhaps unlike paid journalism -- should not be construed as a summary.

Ed's sentence seems to me to try to represent a unified "resigned-board-member" position and that's just not true. It was one among many and more important for some than for others. I resist anyone trying to categorize 4 people's reactions as being one single reason. Four people cited four very different reasons with some overlap.

Ed Cone

Again, Sue, I describe a timeline, saying the board resigned AFTER, not the board resigned BECAUSE.

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