DURHAM -- The public's right to know and a 911 caller's right to privacy are at odds as the Durham Police Department seeks legislative approval to hide the sound of a caller's voice.
Deputy Chief Steve Mihaich persuaded city and county officials to lobby the General Assembly to restrict the release of 911 calls to include only written transcripts or recordings distorted so the caller's voice can't be recognized.
Last week, the N.C. Association of County Commissioners embraced the potential policy as a legislative goal for this year. The N.C. League of Municipalities declined because the proposal came in too late, but the league's legislative action committee will monitor the effort.
"Typically, that is one of those issues that the league would stand behind one of its members on," said interim communications director Matt Lail.
Right now, North Carolina and North Dakota are the only two states that identify 911 recordings as public records and provide access to them, according to Eric White, a graduate student in mass communication at UNC-Chapel Hill who has studied the issue. Georgia, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wyoming all prohibit their release, White said, and most states' laws don't specifically mention anything about 911 recordings.
Mihaich said the Durham police ran into trouble in a case where a television station played the recording of a 911 call. The caller was a witness to a violent crime. The caller heard his or her voice on television, as did others involved in the crime. Afterward, the caller was threatened and stopped cooperating with police.
Mihaich wants the law changed so police could digitally disguise a voice or merely release a transcript of the call.
"Our whole intention is not to stop the media from getting public information, but to protect our witnesses," Mihaich said.
As other states have pondered similar changes, opponents have argued that true voice inflections convey emotions that a transcript or altered recording can't.
Mihaich said Durham's 911 director has noticed fewer calls and more hang-ups since the witness's voice was broadcast.
"It's having a chilling effect for callers who observe something in their neighborhood to call in because of the fear of retribution," said Ellen Reckhow, vice chairwoman of the Durham County Board of Commissioners. "People are afraid that their voices will be recognized by acquaintances who are doing the shooting."
Reckhow said callers are relying on the Enhanced 911 system, knowing that dispatchers can trace a call to their location and send police without knowing the nature of the emergency.
Officers "feel that they're hamstrung in not getting good quality information," she said.
Mihaich opposes simply releasing the tapes but then prohibiting the broadcast of 911 calls where a witness might be in danger, saying police might not know when a witness might face a threat. He said reporters could still access the original recordings with a court order.
News media's interest
But White, a former television reporter, said letting the criminal justice system control the release of 911 tapes undermines the reason for releasing them to begin with: to hold government officials accountable for their job performance. He said his former TV station was able to secure recordings of a dispatcher saying he didn't "give a s---" about a caller's problem.
White said police are usually going to favor a caller's privacy over the public's right to know.
"You're putting an enormous amount of power in the hands of someone like that who is obviously going to have their own agenda," said White. "It's just important for the government to keep an open book of what's happening."
Staff writer Joseph Neff contributed to this report.
