Stanley: Important reasons behind naming officer, reporting threats

A thoughtful reader left me a message Wednesday morning expressing anger that we named the officer who shot an armed man on Saturday. The officer’s name appeared in our report about how threats against him were being widely distributed across the Internet and social networks.

We would never have published the officer’s name if doing so might compromise his safety. Long before we named Dominique Heaggan, his identity was widely known by the people launching threats against him. All anyone had to do was search “Milwaukee officer shooting” and they could find his name as well as photos from Facebook, along with threats by some people — and calls for peace by others.

We let the Police Department know in advance what we were reporting and they did not ask us to withhold his name for safety reasons. They were aware his identity was widely known and being distributed, along with threats against him. The officer and armed suspect grew up near one another and were one year apart in age. People close to Sylville Smith, the man who was shot, have known who the officer was since the day of the shooting.

The names of officers involved in shootings quickly become part of the public record, as they must.  Police have not released Heaggan’s name because of department practice during officer investigations. All police shootings are investigated by independent authorities now, according to state law, and this investigation is being conducted by the State Department of Justice, which will soon release his name as a matter of public record with its findings.

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The Journal Sentinel has always reported the names of officers involved in shootings as a matter of public interest. No power we give our government is greater than the use of force, even in self defense, and citizens must know that this authority is being used according to the law. Both the state and the Milwaukee Police Department have enacted new processes governing use of force in response to officer shootings and custody deaths in recent years, including the 2014 shooting of Dontre Hamilton, who was struggling with mental illness and had fallen sleep in Red Arrow Park. In that case, too, the Journal Sentinel published the officer’s name before it was released by the department.

From what has been reported to date by Police Chief Edward Flynn and Mayor Tom Barrett, Officer Heaggan followed department procedures on Saturday. He was wearing a body camera when chasing Smith, told the suspect to drop his weapon, and fired after Smith began turning toward him while still armed, they said.

The body camera video has been sent to the Justice Department for third-party review and has not yet been released to the public. Smith’s autopsy report also has not yet been released.

As we reported, no citizens have filed complaints against Officer Heaggan with the city’s Fire and Police Commission.  He was lauded by the department in 2014 after he and officer Dave Waliszewski purchased dinner at local diner for a homeless woman on a frigid February day before arranging shelter for her. This is another reason why it is important to know our police officers by name.

We believe it is important for the public to know the threats the officer is facing – and how authorities are responding to those threats. That was the primary point of the story.