Police 'gag' media crime reports

The papers have printed crime details for four years

An editor whose newspapers print lists of local crimes has claimed the police are trying to gag him.

The Mid-Somerset series of newspapers have printed details of burglaries and vandalism throughout Wells and the surrounding area for the past four years.

But Avon and Somerset police said the information is increasing people's fear of crime because it is presented in list form without further accompanying detail.

Philip Welch, editor of the series, has arranged a meeting with police chiefs to discuss the future of crime reporting in his newspaper.

Pretending crime doesn't exist, doesn't help anybody.

Philip Welch

Andy Jackson of Avon and Somerset Police said: "We do not want a blanket list of crimes because we don't benefit from that.

"Our aim is to work with the media to reduce crime and the fear of crime and presenting a list of crimes which don't have leads or witness appeals attached, don't do either of those things.

"We will still be providing the information, but in a form that we want to release it."

Mr Welch, whose newspapers have a combined circulation of 19,000, said: "We started Crime File to bring all crime together in one section of the papers.

"We wanted to present it in a responsible way so readers weren't alarmed by large volumes of crime.

'Press office'

"We wanted to advise readers as to what the crime trends were and warn them if there were lots of break-ins or burglaries occurring.

"The police saw this and said it wasn't what they wanted and said they weren't going to co-operate anymore."

He added: "My view is that pretending crime doesn't exist, doesn't help anybody."

Mr Welch is due to hold talks with an inspector from the force's press office on Friday.