MEDIA POLICY

The Lenoir County Sheriff's Office attempts to fully cooperate with all media outlets and provide information in a timely and accurate manner.

The LCSO is required under North Carolina General Statute, to protect the release of certain types of personally identifiable information. Whenever possible, the reports will identify what data has been redacted. The following guidelines have been applied in our report generation:

	Locked & Sealed cases and arrests will not be released to the media until such time as it is closed or unsealed.
	Sex Offense data, which could allow for personal identification of a sex offense victim (adult or juvenile), will not be released. Sex offenses are defined by the following crime codes: 11A-Forcible Rape, 11B-Sex Offense Sodomy, 11C-Sex Offense Assault, 11D-Sex Offense Forcible Fondling, 36A-Sex Offense Incest, 36B-Sex Offense Statutory Rape. All of these sex offenses will be displayed on the reports using a statute description of Sex Offense rather than the more detailed description used in the Records System. If a case is a sex offense, the address will be suppressed and the following message will be shown in its place: "Shielded by Law (NCGS 132-1.4)."
	Juvenile names, address, etc. will be suppressed from the case, arrest and crash reports. Juveniles are defined by the State of North Carolina as being less than 16 years of age. Age is determined by the person s date of birth and the date that the case occurred. If no date of birth is entered, the person s jacket type is checked to make sure the person is not a juvenile.
	Narratives are suppressed due to the free form content that cannot be programmatically verified to prevent the release of information protected by the Federal Privacy Act and may contain investigatory information protected by North Carolina Statute.
	Suicide and House Check information will be will not be released to any media outlet.
	Suicide and Child Abuse information will be will not be released to any media outlet.
	Crash Reports: Information in these reports are derived from the NC DMV-349 completed by the Lenoir County Sheriff's Office LaGrange Division for crashes that occur in the Town of LaGrange and is public record pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 132-1.4 with protected information redacted (removed) it is not a certified copy. A paper copy of these reports can be with a fee of $2.00 at the Lenoir County Sheriff's Office Records Division in Kinston.
	Arrest Report Disclaimer: Information in this publication is derived from Arrest Reports completed by the Lenoir County Sheriff's Office and is public record pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 132-1.4. It represents ONLY ARRESTS of individuals and does not in any manner signify that the individuals named herein have been convicted of the offenses listed in this publication. This publication is only represented to be current as of the revision date. Material contained in this publication may have been altered, added, or deleted since the revision date. Information contained in this publication is designed as a reference guide only. It is highly recommended that you verify this information by obtaining an official criminal history from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation-Division of Criminal Information. A paper copy of these reports is available for a fee of $2.00 at the Lenoir County Sheriff's Office Records Division Monday through Friday between 9:00AM and 5:00PM.

	The Lenoir County Sheriff's Office is not responsible for imformation obtained from a public records that is altered, misues, copied, printed or used by third parties. For questions on the Lenoir County Sheriff's Office media policies, please contact our records division office at (252) 559-6100

Updated 7/1/2013