And while Williams is again expressing his confidence in the work that the police officers are putting in to ensure a conviction, the officer commanding Eastern Division Crispin Jeffries took grave issue with our report last night, calling it unscrupulous.
ACP Crispin Jeffries, Eastern Division Commander
"It was unscrupulous for one media house to literally invite a person who is in lawful police custody, only because he is not in the police confines, to interview him over a cell phone to get a story to try and continue to make and to sensationalize what is happening out there. I find this highly unprofessional and unscrupulous. But it is these same people who work in the media industry that hound our department daily for material to continue to feed people out there.
And I am being very hostile here but it is a reality that the media is playing what they want to play and this is the reason why I am saying this because we believe the effort the police is making, there are hundreds and thousands of people out there, a massive amount of people who are becoming scared, whose Christmas celebration may be hampered by this type of sensationalization.
On the other hand, we've been able to reduce a number of other street crime, the preventable crimes; our presence in the streets. Facts are facts. If you sensationalize the facts it doesn't change it because it is already a fact and I think that the media needs to work with us. We need your help. We need for you to be with us. State the facts but leave out the sensation, leave out the drama and intrigue.
This cell phone interview and then trying to come to this press brief and try to make that an issue and try to entrap Mr. Williams to fight back and forth with you, to continue that sensationalization is very very annoying. It angers me."
And while he had a lot to say about 7NEWS, Jeffries failed to explain how a prisoner under guard by his police managed to get his hands on the cellular phone he used to call us.
