Semissourian rolls out new policy for "delisting" some crime stories after 6 years

The Southeast Missourian is implementing a new policy today that governs how archived crime reports and stories are made available to search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others. A draft of the policy was previously explained by publisher Jon K. Rust in a column on Wed., July 25. Rust invited feedback until Aug. 8 about the proposed changes, which came in unanimously positive.

As Rust previously wrote: �The new policy seeks to strike a balance between the Southeast Missourian keeping the public informed and recognizing, sympathetically, that in today�s world of instant digital search, long-past minor indiscretions can play a disproportionate role in a person�s online identity.�

The daily crime report will be �delisted� from search engine accessibility automatically after six years of being online. Staff-written crime stories, which involve misdemeanor convictions or other qualified dispositions of justice including charges dropped or not-guilty decisions, may be delisted after specific request.

�To be clear, this new policy [does] not remove the newspaper�s record of previous infractions,� Rust wrote. �These stories and crime reports [will] be available through print archives; microfilm at the newspaper and various libraries; and on semissourian.com. But each of these channels is much less universal � than the major search engines. This maintains the newspaper as the �first draft of local history� while balancing an individual�s opportunity to move on with their life.�