On Sept. 13, an explosion and vehicle fire rocked a Troutdale neighborhood. On Nov. 19, The Oregonian/OregonLive finally was able to report what had happened.
Over those two months, questions lingered, and misinformation likely took hold. Why did it take so long to get the facts?
For journalists, the struggle for information plays out in big and small ways – mostly behind the scenes, sometimes in the spotlight. The Oregonian/OregonLive has engaged in several legal battles this year to force disclosure of significant public information – notably, our successful efforts to free records related to deaths attributed to the record 2021 heat wave.
But the effort to extract information plays out in lower profile ways, as well. Public agencies routinely withhold or delay releasing basic facts to the public. That can be due to an oversight, a staffing shortage, a misunderstanding of the law or myriad other reasons.
A week after the Troutdale explosion, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office released a followup to its original news release, saying, “The death is not criminal in any way. The family of the deceased has asked that the individual’s identity and the manner of death not be released. Because there is no threat to the public, MCSO is honoring their request.”
That struck several of us in the newsroom as quite odd. The community would be left in the dark about what happened, even basic facts like who died.
Who, what, when, where, and how are the fundamental elements of news. The Oregonian/OregonLive, and every other news organization, sometimes publish information that a family might wish to keep confidential. It might be who died in a car wreck or a guilty plea in a local courtroom.
Our role, however, is to inform the greater public whenever there is a matter of public concern.
An incident that killed someone, woke an entire neighborhood, damaged vehicles and houses, shut down streets and drew at least three dozen employees of several public agencies certainly qualifies as a matter of public concern.
The Oregonian/OregonLive diligently asked for more information over several weeks. And the sheriff’s office either didn’t respond or declined to release the records. The back and forth was more difficult than it should have been.
An exemption to the Oregon public records law allows investigators to withhold information if disclosure would interfere with a criminal investigation. It is written narrowly (information can be kept confidential “unless and only for so long as there is a clear need to delay disclosure in the course of a specific investigation”). But it is one of the most broadly used exemptions and, in my experience, often misapplied.
Even well after the sheriff’s office had publicly said the death was “not criminal in any way,” it continued to withhold records, saying the Troutdale investigation was not complete.
Police agencies, in particular, withhold more information than in the past. Portland police, for example, routinely refuse to identify the business where a crime occurred. I think of it as secrecy creep, an insidious force that slowly strangles the release of public information so that Oregonians are less informed about important events. I last wrote about this frustration over the summer, when Portland police had failed to release even the most basic information about a mass shooting downtown that killed one teenage girl and injured several other people. We still know very little about those other victims.
Oregonians deserve basic information about public safety incidents. Families are grieving. Neighborhoods are rattled. Public resources are called in to respond.
In my view, when there is conflict between a narrow private interest and informing the general public, the public should win, hands down.
In this case, the sheriff’s office acknowledged a miscommunication about the request for public records and, in retrospect, a misapplication of exemptions to the general rule of disclosure.
Transparency builds trust. A lack of transparency contributes to mistrust. When a public agency does not release the name of a person who died in an explosion, people may wonder why not. The sheriff’s office said it did not intend any special treatment in this case.
Ultimately, investigators concluded the death in Troutdale was a suicide. The Oregonian/OregonLive, like most news organizations, does not routinely cover deaths by suicide, unless the person was particularly prominent or the death occurred in a highly public way.
This incident qualifies, tragically, as a highly public act. The sheriff’s office went out of its way to say the fatal explosion was not related to another alarming report of an explosive device in the area – a report determined to be false. But without any actual facts about what happened in that Troutdale neighborhood, uncertainty can and does linger.
A public suicide is an opportunity for a public safety agency to talk about the epidemic of suicide in Oregon. Hundreds more Oregonians die by suicide each year than are killed in traffic wrecks. It is also a chance to inform people in need – or in crisis -- that there are resources available, there is help, and there is hope.
Lines for Life is Portland-based nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention in the Pacific Northwest. Its suicide lifeline is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Suicide lifeline: 800-273-8255 Text: “273TALK” to 839863
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