JANUARY 14, 2022, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
the case. No press release was ever sent to the
Keizertimes regarding Batsell’s incident.
When press releases are sent to media out-
lets, they are sent at the same time the infor-
mation is posted on social media.
“Why not be in front of it, write your own
narrative? Because if you allow somebody
else to write the narrative for you, you know
as well as I do, it's so much more difficult,”
said Wenning. “You write the narrative for
the police department based on your opinion,
your training experience and your companies
. . . your way of doing business.”
By posting the information first, Wenning
said it’s much easier to get out in front of
statements that might be made later on.
“It would be a lot easier to post these
things up front and say look at what this unit
did. Look what we’re doing at Keizer Station,
we’re protecting you. Versus waiting until
somebody is victimized, who might be that
special person, whether that be a legislator or
somebody that's vocal or high profile in the
community. You know darn well they're not
gonna keep their mouth shut,” said Wenning.
Batsell said that the department’s post
about her lacked context and left out details
that created a false narrative. According to
Batsell, she crashed into the parked car after
swerving to avoid an animal, which was not
included in the post.
Batsell also added that the post made it
seem like she was drinking at 8 a.m. before
driving her kids to school, which she said
wasn’t the case.
“To me there's a clear difference between
a conscious decision like that and you know,
making that mistake the next day after I’d
been drinking the night before,” said Batsell.
Thompson, the Salem lawyer, said that
misinformation on social media can even
make its way into the courtroom at times.
“Sometimes it actually infects the investi-
gation. It infects the integrity of the statements
— LT. TREVOR WENNING,
SPOKESPERSON FOR THE KEIZER POLICE DEPARTMENT
Call 503 . 390.1051
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News tip? Contact reporter Joey Cappelletti at editor@keizertimes.com or 616-610-3093.
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Wenning said that while the department
has had conversations, they plan on con-
tinuing to post the arrest incidents and to
not regulate the comment section. Wenning
added that much like the booking photos, the
department would “absolutely” change their
ways if legislators mandated it.
“I would say that the public should know
when the police have taken an action against
someone. However, we know that it's merely
an accusation and if it's a very serious accu-
sation, the law provides for that,” Bynum said.
“But if it is a minor accusation, that can have
far greater implications than what they're
accused of long term.”
Why not be in front of it,
write your own narrative?
Because if you allow
somebody else to write
the narrative for you, you
know as well as I do, it's
so much more difficult.
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that are being made and sometimes it might
even hurt the state's case,” Thompson said.
“If you have people out there saying things
that are just inherently not true and other
people start making things up and think-
ing that, ‘Oh, this case is about this.’ But that
was not what the case ever was about,” said
Thompson. “Then it starts like detracting
from the credibility of maybe what the origi-
nal allegations really were all about.”
Thompson said that he’s never understood
why police departments “put fuel on the fire”
by posting on social media, and in the case of
booking photos, legislators didn’t either.
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