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Undercover officer's name can be revealed
A judge rules that a newspaper can identify a Polk County deputy who shot and killed a suspect.
©Associated Press
August 22, 2002
BARTOW -- A circuit judge has ruled that the Ledger of Lakeland is free to publish the name of an undercover deputy involved in a fatal shooting last month.
Circuit Judge Ronald Herring denied Polk County Sheriff Lawrence Crow's request Tuesday for an injunction prohibiting the newspaper from publishing the name of the deputy who shot and killed a man during a drug raid.
"Law enforcement is a dangerous profession. There are times when these undercover officers have to be revealed. We do not operate under a police state," said Herring, a former police officer.
Ledger executive editor Louis "Skip" Perez said the newspaper would not immediately print the officer's name, instead giving the Sheriff's Office time to take steps it feels necessary to protect the deputy.
An attorney for the Sheriff's Office argued that the undercover deputy and the deputy's family face risk of harm if his name is disclosed. Any ongoing investigations also would be damaged, he said.
Perez contended that the public has the right to know the name of any law enforcement officer who kills a suspect.
The deputy shot and killed 22-year-old Jason Michael Britt as a drug task force tried to serve a search warrant at a Lakeland mobile home July 26.
The sheriff and the state attorney are investigating.
The Sheriff's Office had received an emergency temporary injunction on Thursday after the newspaper notified the office that it intended to publish his name.
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