HOBOKEN — Hoboken City Hall has tightened its policy about releasing information to the media, and the Police Department has changed its previous practice of allowing reporters to look at police reports, according to report in a local media source.
NJ.com confirmed the new policy about City Hall with a city spokesman after obtaining a recent memo from Mayor Dawn Zimmer to city employees. Zimmer’s memo rescinded previous public information policies.
NJ.com notes, “All statements to the media must now be reviewed and approved by Business Administrator Arch Lison. Any public officer wishing to speak at a formal engagement must also notify Liston in writing. All employees must notify Liston and an immediate supervisor the same day they are intervewied by or hold a conversation with a member of the media. …The policy does not apply to City Council members, said city spokesman Juan Melli in an e-mail. The police department also recently changed its policies and will no longer allow the media to look at copies of police reports which are public documents. All police reports must be orally dictated by a sanctioned member of the department.”
Until recently, media sources including the Hoboken Reporter regularly was able to view Police Department reports, as long as they were not confidential for certain reasons (such as being part of an ongoing sensitive investigation).
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