Bringing back the blotter

Flipping through the pages of the Indiana Daily Student last semester, you might have noticed a popular item missing -- the police blotter.\nFor those unfamiliar with the blotter, it hailed as a controversial favorite. It reports all arrests and citations made by the IU Police Department according to the daily activity log.\nIn the spring, the management staff opted to omit the blotter, citing that charges sometimes change and it is not our place to smear the names of students for charges which may not hold up in court.\nWhile the chance of error is possible, we believe part of our job as a newspaper is to serve as a public record and service our readers. We report the blotter with the same accuracy standards we do with each police story in the paper and do our best to minimize any chance of error.\nAs a management team, we have elected to begin publishing the blotter again -- this time, with the hope that some changes can be made. While we understand some of the people charged and listed in the blotter might have charges dropped, we hope to use the blotter as a chance to put crimes committed on campus in perspective for our audience. \nNoting that charges can be dropped, we have made the decision not to post the blotter online, so if an employer were to search online about a candidate, the blotter would not appear.\nWe also will be adding a line to the beginning to ensure readers understand that the charges printed may ultimately be changed or dropped by the prosecutor's office. \nWhile many students would argue drinking is normal on a college campus, for more than half the students at IU, drinking is illegal. Binge drinking and overconsumption of alcohol is a major issue on any college campus. The choice to run names of those arrested for drinking incidents, which might seem minor to some, is simply aimed to highlight the pervasive problem of underage drinking on campus.\nWith about 15,000 to 17,000 copies of the IDS floating around campus each day, we acknowledge the blotter can shape perceptions and even influence people's opinions about those mentioned. \nHowever, part of our job is to report the news -- the good, the bad and the ugly. We don't choose who gets arrested or why one student gets arrested for public intoxication when another across the street may be equally as drunk but goes undetected. \nThe goal of the blotter is not to pass judgement, make assumptions or cast unfair stereotypes upon those arrested. \nNews is subjective. Everyone has their own opinions about what should be printed, and what simply should be left out of the public eye. \nAs a newspaper, and as a management team, we welcome our readers' opinions and understand there may be people reading who will completely disagree with our decision. We encourage students, faculty, staff and all of our readers to express their opinions about matters we write about by e-mailing the Opinion section at letters@indiana.edu.