Readers have asked me on several occasions why we don’t print a police report,

This has been a debate for years for news outlets.

On the one side, newspapers are the first draft of history. Researchers rely on newspapers as a real-time account of an event as it was understood in the moment. It is a record of the people, places and things from which history is made.

On the other hand, an arrest is an accusation, not a conviction. People are presumed innocent until the legal process finds them guilty. Newspapers have always assumed that people understand this.

But not only are civics lessons not adequately addressed in our schools, they are also sorely lacking among our adult population.

In other publications, we decided on a compromise. We published the reports in print but did not make them available online. That preserved the history but kept it away from a Google search.

But now we won’t print the reports. Let me tell you some things that DID NOT factor in that decision.

We have gotten emails and letters, usually from girlfriends, wives and mothers of ne’er-do-wells, saying that having the public record available embarrasses poor Johnny. Or it keeps poor Johnny from living or working where he wants. Or poor Johnny has changed.

My stance on that has always been if your behavior causes embarrassment, be mad at your behavior, not those who held you accountable.

We also have gotten correspondence threatening legal action. That’s laughable. The free press is written into the Constitution. Poor Johnny’s desire to avoid accountability is not.

In this, I don’t just talk the talk; I walk the walk.

At age 17, I had an accountability wake-up call. My then-girlfriend was pregnant and I had been an active participant in her status. We were faced with a life-or-death decision. Keep the child and everything from that point forward is altered for us. End the pregnancy and face the moral and emotional consequences.

It was an easy decision. My son Eric is a computer programmer, a loving husband and father and a general benefit to society as a whole. Imagine if I had robbed society of that for my desire to avoid accountability.

Like many people, I have also on occasion made some bad financial decisions. The world holds me accountable for those. Why should someone who drives drunk or commits domestic violence or steals a car be immune from the full consequences of their actions when being upside down in a house or a car purchase will take you down like a cinder block around your neck?

Actions have consequences. Don’t shield poor Johnny from those. You’re not doing him any favors.

So why not publish a crime report?

The main reason is that too many people rush to judgment. For them, the accusation is proof of guilt. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work, As a society, we once understood that. Now? Not so much.

Another reason is the rise of Artificial Intelligence. AI will read those printed accounts and hand them out on demand. That decays the efficacy of the original compromise to print but not post online.

But poor Johnny needs to be aware that those police reports are also public record. AI is going to read them. Just because we’re not going to publish the police blotter doesn’t mean your deeds will be forgotten.

We will continue to cover crime stories, but we won’t publish a crime report. The report itself lacks the context and depth that a full story provides.

But we will continue to champion accountability.