JIJI NDOGO: Why cops delay information

I’ve talked before about how the police have caught criminals (minor offenders on my part) who decided to share more than they should. Oftentimes it’s just a moronic offender posting a clue online, thinking it was only a stupid comment. Sometimes it’s a more brazen act, like a picture of an individual in the process of committing a crime.

One case that made me laugh out loud happened abroad in a viral 2016 case. A guy called Donald ‘Chip’ Pugh, an Ohio fugitive wanted for failing to appear in court, was unhappy with the ugly mugshot the Police Department was using. In his finite wisdom, Pugh sent officers a better selfie of himself wearing sunglasses, captioning it, "Here is a better photo, that one is terrible." Needless to say, he had led the police right to him.

What I am trying to say is that in police work, information is key, be it a photograph, words or a piece of evidence. Something may appear small and useless to someone, but it might make or break a police investigation.

There was another case where an intruder broke into a house and stole items of great value. He left no clues at all and the police were stumped. Until the detectives noticed that the man had taken a bite out of an apple and left it behind. They didn’t release this information to the public until they were able to match the bite with the bite impression of the thief.

In case you’re still with me and wondering what it is I’m rambling about, that there is the crux of this piece — the reason why police withhold information.

I say this because of the uproar over how information was being passed following the recent school fires. It may seem unfair that parents aren’t being informed as clearly or as fast as it should naturally be, and I understand the frustration, but sharing everything in an investigator’s hands is like playing cards with a transparent deck. It’s the unknown that often proves crucial.

I won’t say this is always the case and I can’t defend how sometimes shoddy police work can complicate things. Officers are only human and some of them aren’t very good at what they do. However, more often than not, control of information is all a cop has to work with. And it works both ways.

Some people have confessed to crimes they didn’t commit for various stupid reasons. Some wish (or are forced) to cover up for someone else. Others crave the infamy that may yank them out of their ‘too normal’ lives; what people call ‘15 minutes of fame’. A few others do it because they are convinced of their guilt, either by being mentally incapacitated or being involved in some way.

If the police show their hand and release everything they know, it’s all too easy for someone to latch onto this and claim to have done it. But if the crucial details are hidden, things that only the perpetrator would know, the police can weed out the real suspects from the whack jobs.

Again, this is not to say that things are going exactly as they should with the devastating arsons committed in schools. After all, I’m only a small village cop who doesn’t have all the facts.

This piece is meant to only to provide one aspect of what might be happening and hopefully help someone understand what might be happening.

Jiji Ndogo sends our condolences to all affected by this tragedy.