Danbury Makes Arrest Reports Available With One Click, Will This Satisfy Critics?

In years past, the City of Danbury has been criticized by residents and members of the press for a lack of transparency.

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When Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito took office he vowed to face the problem head on and now we're seeing the results. One of the first things the Mayor did was hire a PR specialist (Erin Henry) who consolidated and streamlined the system. Henry and another Esposito staffer John Kleinhans worked together to give people the ability to check one source and effortlessly access information about the various departments. To that end, the city's website has seen some significant changes that make that possible.

One of the louder criticisms of city communication centered around the Danbury PD. Member of the press and locals had been vocal about a lack of information flowing out of the department. This issue appears to be changing for the better. There is now a section of the city's website that allows you to easily access arrest reports and other police documents on a daily basis.

Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito was a guest on the I-95 Morning Show on Thursday (1/12/23). We asked the Mayor about this transparency effort, this is what he had to say:

"It's all about transparency. I want to be able to give the people out there, you know I don't want them sitting at home wondering what is happening, we want to give them as much information as we can as long as it's not an ongoing investigation. There are certain times we have to hold back a little bit because of the investigation but we're trying to do our best to get the information out, as soon as possible."

You can listen to the Mayor's answer below.

We also spoke to Erin Henry who said:

“Danbury is following in the footsteps of several CT towns making arrest logs available to the public on a daily basis. This tool aims to keep the community informed and is part of our effort to increase accessibility and transparency.”

Editorial: 

Transparency has become a cute buzz that gets thrown around in the public and private sectors. It's usually offered as a goal or a future intention but its rarely accomplished by those who promise it. That is why this is such an impressive move by the City of Danbury. The Mayor said he'd get this done and he and his team did it. Transparency fosters trust in the community.

Do I really need to know who was arrested for trespassing today? No. But when the s--- hits the fan and people want information on something more significant, those arrest reports could become valuable to the community and the press. There is another benefit, these reports can clear up any confusion created by social media news. We all know that rumors and innuendo spread like wildfire in the digital age.

P.S. I was not saying DPD attempted to hide anything in the past.  All I am saying is that some people believed the information was sometimes hard to find or slow to come. It's impossible to release hard factual information at the same speed of internet rumors. Official information should be released to the public as quickly as possible. 

P.S. #2 - Now, I know I can trust that Danbury officials are at least trying to stay on the level with you and I, not every community is like that. Try getting information out of Town of Cornwall, CT and see how that goes. Go read my articles about Dudleytown and you'll see what I mean. Even better, Google Dudleytown with my name and all of my articles will come up.

Whenever I ask a question and the response is "nothing to see here" I will follow-up with many more. When someone tells you "don't worry about it", you should worry about it. People who aren't hiding something say "Are you nuts? I didn't take your Pop-Tarts, they are still on top of the fridge!" They don't tell you that you can't ask them questions about Pop-Tarts or tell you, you're not allowed to look for crumbs.

The city's clarity efforts are not the only topic we covered with Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito on Thursday (1/12/23). We talked about the Danbury wrestling team, two Immaculate students who've qualified for an elite math competition and the Danbury Career Academy. Listen to the full interview below and tune in to the I-95 Morning Show on Thursday mornings at 9:20 to hear Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito's weekly appearance.

Do you like discussing Danbury? Like hearing about the entire Greater-Danbury area? If so, check out the Ethan, Lou & Large Dave Podcast on Apple and Spotify. It's the same show we do on the radio but with limited commercials and no music. Or, listen live by streaming the show on the I-95 Rock Mobile app, or tune into I-95 (95.1FM). Follow I-95 on Instagram @i95rock