Is Key West Police Chief Buz Dillon a public relations genius or what? Last Friday, in a front page interview with Solares Hill, Dillon summarized his opinion of the local newspapers— including Key West The Newspaper and the Key West Citizen— in one word: "Trash". He said he no longer reads the local papers and he bragged about cutting us all off from police information.
He did not explain, however, why he is still spending tax dollars to pay a full-time public information representative for the department.
Dillon is apparently mad at the local newspapers for printing, he said, only the negative side of his department. And he said he will continue to punish the offending journalists by refusing to answer their phone calls— and, apparently, to arrest us every chance he gets.
As you might imagine, Buz was particularly critical of Key West The Newspaper— for obvious reasons. We have consistently uncovered and reported incompetence and corruption in his department— incompetence and corruption that, we're sure, he would like to see go unreported. We have openly called Dillon a baldfaced liar, and we have documented that charge.
But, in that amazing Solares Hill interview, most of his wrath was directed at the Citizen, Solares Hill's mama publication. Dillon said that the Citizen has "no integrity"— and the only difference between it and KWTN is that "the Citizen comes out every day."
He said he refuses to provide any information to the Citizen's police beat reporter, Tom Walker, because, he said, Walker "has an agenda." He didn't reveal what that agenda might be, however.
But we think we know why Dillon dislikes Walker: Tom is not only a former Key West cop, he handled internal affairs investigations. He knows how the department works. And he has inside contacts that the rest of us who cover the police department could never develop.
But mostly, Walker knows how to cut through the spin and the bull.
In an effort to gag Walker, Dillon even called his boss, Citizen Editor Sally Mahan. He accused Walker of— get this— "leaking information" to Key West The Newspaper. Mahan was incredulous. "I asked him for a specific example," she said. "He didn't have one— so I questioned why, without any real information, he would call me and try to damage Tom's reputation. He didn't have a response."
We have alleged in the past that Buz Dillon is not the sharpest pencil in the box— and this recent performance seems to confirm that. Yo, Buz! Key West The Newspaper and the Key West Citizen compete for the news, you dumb twit! Why would we give away our stories to each other?!
In the Solares Hill story, Mahan is quoted as saying, "Dillon does not understand the First Amendment and as long as he fails to understand it, he might as well live in Nazi Germany." Whammo!
Dillon was also critical of the local press because we have dared to question why so few arrests resulted from the recent seven-month-long investigation into alleged consumer fraud in Duval Street t-shirt shops. He said we just didn't understand the goal of that investigation.
The goal, he argued after the fact, was not to make arrests, but to just gather information. Let's see if we've got this straight. An undercover cop just sat there every day for seven months and watched other sales people steal thousands of dollars from unsuspecting tourists— and all she did was document the technique?
Buz did have some praise for one newspaper, however— the Keynoter, a middle-Keys paper with limited circulation in Key West. He says he likes the work of Keynoter reporter Bruce Laplante, a former neighbor, who has, apparently, never written anything "bad" about Dillon or his department. In fact, Laplante was able to turn the report about the two cops caught lying into a favorable story— sort of.
Let's say it like it is. Chief Dillon's public relations problem is of his own making. Rather than freely releasing information that citizens have the right to know— full disclosure with minimum delay— he actively avoids disclosure. And when he's literally forced to release information, he often delays that release for a long as he legally can.
He has ordered his public information officer to selectively release even routine information. Some newspapers get it, others don't. And he has threatened his own officers with disciplinary action if they are caught "leaking" information to the press.
When is enough enough? How long will the City Manager and the City Commissioners stand for one of the City's highest officials openly feuding with all of the local newspapers? It's time to pack this boy up and put him on a bus back to Georgia.