Meet and Greet is Back; Media Not Allowed?

It’s been weeks since the media has been invited to a meet and greet organized by the Police Department. But today, we found out from the Regional Commander for Eastern Division South, Senior Superintendent Marco Vidal, that members of the department have been meeting with residents, but that the media’s presence has been preventing the police from getting intel on criminal activities in their respective neighborhoods. Interestingly, the purpose of the initiative was simply to hear the concerns of city residents. So does this mean the media will be cut off from future meet and greets? Here’s what Vidal had to say.

Marco Vidal

Sr. Supt. Marco Vidal, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South

“There’s been this talk about no meet and greet, but the meet and greet have continued. One of the things though, I think that from having spoken to the residents here, they are a bit intimidated by the media presence in terms of getting information. I have personally visited some areas alone and I think that I get far more because there is no media and there is a personal interaction with certain people and you get more. But the purpose of the meet and greet is to meet the residents. I realize now that it is actually meet the media. But I do believe that the issue is to get as much as we can from the residents and their concerns so that we can better address the matters that are more pressing for them.”

Andrea Polanco

“Sir you mentioned that the residents are intimidated by the presence of the media. Will you be doing more meet and greet with the residents on your own or will this be that we will be invited to fewer meet and greets for the year?”

Sr. Supt. Marco Vidal

“No, I am not saying; the media is welcomed to come anytime. I am just saying that there is a sense of…I am sure that you have been in these areas and you have seen that when the cameras are around, they tend to shy away because they don’t want for certain people to get the impression that they are giving information about that. But generally that is not the case; it is just people expressing what their concerns are and we welcome that because that is what allows us then to better police that area.”