SMPD receives fake news award

In an era when journalists are easily accused of reporting fake news, government agencies get some of that credit, too.

On March 13, San Francisco’s Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) nonprofit awarded the Santa Maria Police Department with the “Fake News Award” for a fake press release it issued in February 2016 that was ultimately uncovered by the Sun.

click to enlarge SMPD receives fake news award
SCREEN SHOT VIA NIXLE
TRUSTED INFORMATION: The false press release the Santa Maria Police Department issued on Nixle in February 2016 erodes trust in the news media, said website co-founder and attorney Craig Mitnick.

The not-so-prestigious award was given as part of the EFF’s annual The Foilies awards. In its third year, The Foilies are meant to bring awareness to what the nonprofit considers “absurd” government responses to public records requests or attempts to block information entirely.

Several other agencies and government officials were given similar awards, like “The Undermining Openness Award” given to the U.S. Department of Justice for secretly lobbying Congress to kill a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) reform bill, and “The Whoa There, Cowboy Award” given to Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke for likening the Black Lives Matter movement to the Islamic State.

As for the Santa Maria Police Department, its press release stated that two men had been arrested on suspicion of identity fraud and were turned over to federal immigration authorities. The fabricated story was reported by several local news outlets. The “ruse” press release, as Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin called it at the time, was part of Operation Matador, which resulted in the arrests of more than a dozen suspected MS-13 gang members. The Sun discovered the press release was fraudulent among hundreds of pages of court documents last October.

Martin defended his decision.

“It was a moral and ethical decision, and I stand by it,” Martin told the Associated Press.

Martin credited the ruse with saving the lives of the two men. It was the only time Martin had used such a tactic in his more than 40 years in law enforcement.

The fake press release was published on Nixle—a website used by police throughout the U.S. to push public notifications—and violated its terms of service, which prohibits “false information” from being posted by its members.

Despite this, Martin has refused to remove the fake press release from Nixle, saying that it served its function.

“It’s going to cause a bigger problem for me,” Martin told the Sun. “It’s going to look like we’re taking something off.”

Representatives from Nixle and its parent company, Everbridge, haven’t returned numerous calls and emails from the Sun.

“As law enforcement, you should be following the rules,” EFF’s Dave Maass said. “If I was Nixle, I wouldn’t be particularly happy.”

Nixle’s co-founder, New Jersey-based attorney Craig Mitnick (who sold the company to Everbridge in 2015), said that as well intentioned as the Santa Maria Police Department was, the ruse eroded free speech and trust in the media. He finds no difference between a fake press release put out by a police department and one issued by the White House.

“We wanted Nixle to be the most secure, accurate way for law enforcement to communicate with residents,” Mitnick said. “When you put out a false report, it takes away from the credibility of other reporters.”

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