Troopers must be held accountable

On Friday, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sent a letter to the Alaska Department of Public Safety alleging a serious violation of the paper’s constitutional rights by the Alaska State Troopers.

The incident in question – which is detailed in a news story on page A1 of today’s edition – took place on Wednesday in Willow. After taking pictures of a trooper arrest for a shooting earlier that day, reporter Brian O’Connor left the scene and was shortly thereafter detained by Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Michael Ingram. Sgt. Ingram is a veteran of more than a dozen years, according to his supervisor, Lt. Kathy Shuey. During the traffic stop, Sgt. Ingram ordered O’Connor to turn over his camera’s digital memory card, which O’Connor did after offering to instead share any images with the trooper, an offer that was refused.

On Friday, Lt. Shuey said Ingram believed O’Connor was in possession of evidence and that the reporter had put himself in harm’s way by documenting the arrest.

The Frontiersman believes the actions taken by Ingram were unlawful. O’Connor had twice clearly identified himself as a newspaper reporter, both to Sgt. Ingram and another trooper at the scene, Zachary Huckstep, and we believe the argument that the memory card was evidence is unfounded.

We believe Sgt. Ingram to be a professional and conscientious member of the Alaska State Troopers. We’ve spoken with other reporters who say he has always been helpful and courteous. During our internal discussions on this matter, O’Connor stated that he does not believe Ingram acted maliciously, and we believe Ingram was doing what he thought was right.

However, we respectfully disagree with his contention that his need to collect evidence trumped our rights as citizens to document the actions of our public servants.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right of Americans to speak freely, and is the cornerstone of what we do as journalists. It is our job to inform the public about the actions of its public officials, and it’s a responsibility we take extremely seriously.

Further, the Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unlawful search and seizure. Since it is our belief that Sgt. Ingram had no right to either detain O’Connor or take his recording device, it is our contention those constitutional protections were violated as well.

The fact that the recording device was returned to O’Connor just a couple hours later is irrelevant. Much like troopers wouldn’t let someone off the hook for robbing a bank if the stolen money was returned promptly, we believe it would be irresponsible to stay quiet about this breach of the public’s trust.

We take no joy in filing this complaint, and the gravity of this action is not lost on the Frontiersman. It would have been quite easy for us to give the troopers a pass in the interest of maintaining what has always been a cordial and professional working relationship with the Department of Public Safety. However, we believe that the public’s right to know what its law enforcement officers are doing when they are operating in the public sphere trumps any desire for our employees to avoid engaging in a public disagreement with the state.

Recent events nationally have shown how important it is for the police to be held accountable for their actions. For law enforcement to take the extreme action of detaining a reporter and seizing his recording device is something that we believe cannot stand.

It is not our contention that the Alaska State Troopers are guilty of systemic or widespread abuses of the Constitution. We have been given assurances from the highest levels of law enforcement that our complaint is being taken seriously, and we wish to express our sincere gratitude for the prompt attention this situation has received.

It is our desire that some good come from this incident. We think that good should come in the form of a thorough investigation into the matter as well as an acknowledgment on the part of the state that similar actions against reporters will not be taken in the future.

We continue to believe the Alaska State Troopers to be a highly professional and distinguished group of men and women who do a dangerous and stressful job with the utmost competency. However, in this particular instance, they acted contrary to the public’s trust. And for that, we think they deserve to be held accountable.