Media Extra: outfoxing the censors

  

Ibragim Todashev

   The Boston Globe was working on stories about the FBI Agent and two State Troopers who were present when the agent shot and killed a Chechen friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Florida last year.
     Now The Globe reports it took the heavily redacted copy of the police report they were finally given (as the result of an FOI request) and UN-REDACTED what they say was the improperly covered up name of the agent and troopers.
      And they report that the agent had a "brief and troubled" past in California law enforcement.
      Authorities in Florida and Boston had refused to release the names of the officer involved in the shooting.
     While the story itself is interesting, it is the paper's ability to "unredact" the names that I am confident has sent chills across the law enforcement community.
      I recall reading about a child-abuse suspect who had electronically covered up his face in some pictures showing abuse, and authorities were able to undo the attempt at hiding his identity.
     It works both ways, and police agencies will be rewriting the programs used to redact information.

[The Media Extra is a regular feature of TimLennox.com, used for media stories in between Monday Morning Media Memo postings.]