I would be very interested to hear your response to the question I posed to Officer Lewis a couple hours ago.

Steve
A question.. this is NOT intended as a slam or disrespect… Why is it that police officers always go to the what if… she (in this case) was a “bad gal” instead of giving people the benefit of the doubt…We can what if a situation into anything we want. When a citizen lumps officers into a category because of things other officers have done, officers are up in arms and refer to those citizens as haters. I understand cop’s have a very difficult job (for which you are paid very well) (I did it as a reserve without pay) but the “us against them attitude” displayed by some of your fellow officers is “in part” responsible the difficulties you face in dealing with the public in general. That being said we all know that it always takes the (bigger) party in an argument to make the first conciliatory move toward reconciling the situation.

The woman who was bit may very well have been innocent. I never denied she wasn’t. However, the word “possible” indicates that she may not have been. In fact, you put the word hostage in quotation marks in your own headline. This further indicates she may not have been a hostage. But neither you, nor some of your commenters picked up on this and instead went on a knee-jerk rant about how incompetent the BPD K9 unit has been over the last decade. Your question to me further indicates that you still, today, don’t know the answer. This is my whole point.

You……don’t……know.

Moreover, you didn’t ask anyone for clarification. Which, as a journalist, you should have done before forming your opinion of the incident.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/07/journalistic_bias_or_incompete.html

Read this too, and see the difference between a fact, belief, opinion and prejudice. Combine that with the above article on journalistic bias and see which category your story here falls into.

http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/co300man/pop12d.cfm

EDITOR NOTE–Dispatch was the source for providing the info there was a women in the residence “possibly being held against her will.” That was the reason for the massive response, including the dog. This is beating a dead horse at this point. The “funny ironic” part of the story was a hostage was bitten, not the bad guy. Let’s stop here.

The reason I asked if you did any research is based on the word “possible” in the article when describing the hostage. Your rant from then on highlighted two incidents, spanning about 10 – 11 years, of BPD K9s biting citizens when they shouldn’t have. You’ve since included a third. Good job! Clearly the point of your article is to ridicule and show the BPD K9s in a negative light and highlight their incompetence; as you and many of your readers have since done.

By definition, “possible” could also indicate that the person bit was a bad gal. For instance, she could have been a co-conspirator; or a fugitive running from police due to warrants; or a person harboring the suspect; or any other number of reasons beyond a purely poor innocent bystander minding her own business. That’s the research I was asking if you did. As a journalist I would think that you would find out what the circumstances surrounding the incident were before going on one of your typical anti-police knee-jerk rants. But it doesn’t surprise me you didn’t.

So, what if the woman was a fugitive or a co-conspirator? This goes for all you commenters too that simply knee-jerked into your anti-police comments. I know the article doesn’t indicate one way or another who she was, but that’s where a journalist would come in to play and check facts before writing.

Based on the lack of journalistic standards this article demonstrates, it doesn’t surprise me why the BPD PIO has cut you off from news updates. I also noticed that even the city won’t talk to you, “except as required by law.” No wonder.

I think your blog’s subtitle should read “A different slant on a rant” since it certainly isn’t news.

One last thing for clarification: I just want to point out that I have never identified myself as a police officer. However, if The Editor would like to address me as such, I would much rather be known as a Boise City Police Officer than an incompetent journalist.

EDITOR NOTE–You suggest that co-conspirators and “bad girls” may be subject to dog bites. Did coppers have information the woman fell into one of those areas and therefor needed to be bitten? If you want me to send more info to YOUR department e-mail let me know. Ask SUMF and he will confirm I have it. You have every right to post here, but your tone does little to improve department relations with either the public or the GUARDIAN. The GUARDIAN supports good police work and good policemen.

EDITOR NOTE– “officer Lewis” we did the research and admittedly left out some of the other dog bites that cost the citizens money. The “junk yard dog” capture was one. Thanks for reminding us of misdeeds we failed to mention involving dogs and tigers.