Editorial: Collier County Sheriff’s Office ... agency should air video from fatal-shooting site

The front page of your newspaper on Monday included text and photos about friends and loved ones of Jake Couture, a 17-year-old Gulf Coast High School student shot to death Friday night at a North Naples apartment complex. His mourners and others would like to do something meaningful, like help identify the individual or persons who are responsible or at least know what happened leading up to the fatal moment.

Yet, although someone fitting that description may have been in a white pickup truck reported at the shooting scene at Brittany Bay Apartments, a security video that could bring forward tips from the public was being withheld from the public as of Monday afternoon. The Collier County Sheriff’s Office released 911 voice recordings of calls reporting the shooting but was saying the video provided by the landlord is part of an ongoing investigation and therefore private.

That is a law-enforcement agency’s prerogative. Yet look at the good results that can come from enlisting the public’s eyes and ears — and trust. Just lately, thanks to the “America’s Most Wanted” TV show, we witness the arrest in the Florida Keys of a suspect in a Thanksgiving slaying of four members of a Palm Beach County family,

That story was on Page 9A of your Monday newspaper.

We see a connection.

We believe law-enforcement agencies should exploit every opportunity to collaborate with the public rather than find reasons to withhold potentially valuable information that can solve mysteries and lead to justice.