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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW OSF project translating Bard into modern English stirs international debate ... Roseburg shooting victim describes gunman's rampage ... Guest Opinion: Plaza fencing is ugly and wasteful ... OSF project translating Bard into modern English stirs international debate ... Roseburg shooting victim describes gunman's rampage ... Guest Opinion: Plaza fencing is ugly and wasteful ... GUEST OPINION Guest Opinion: AHS incident was not a crime Comment By Tighe O'Meara DailyTidings.com By Tighe O'Meara Posted Oct. 12, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Tighe O'Meara Posted Oct. 12, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News As your police chief, I want to address concerns some community members have expressed about the Ashland Police Department’s handling of the investigation into last week’s cancellation of the Ashland High School homecoming parade. Specifically, some citizens are asking why the young man who posted the vague threats was not charged with a crime. The simple answer is that there was no crime with which to charge him. The longer answer is there are two thresholds in play here: the threshold at which APD and AHS should be concerned and take precautionary action; and the threshold at which the police can pursue criminal charges. The first threshold was clearly met. We received an email containing somewhat vague but concerning information and we immediately shared this information with senior members of the AHS administrative staff. We all worked together to formulate a response to this information. This was done very quickly, as the email was received at 12:59 p.m. and the parade was scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. While uniformed officers were guarding the high school campus, detectives were busy trying to locate the man who had posted the disturbing information. I believe our officers and our school faculty responded very professionally and appropriately given the day’s events. Later in the day our officers located the man and interviewed him. He was cooperative and plausibly claimed no ill intent. At this point the much more stringent threshold of “probable cause” applies, and that threshold simply was not met. We, as your police officers, will not arrest someone unless we believe the prosecuting authority (in this case the DA’s office) will be successful in prosecuting the case (or at least have a reasonable chance at success). We will not use an arrest as a stand-alone punishment. It must be backed up by a legitimate belief that there will be prosecution. In this case that belief was not there. So, there was no arrest. This man’s posting demonstrated exceedingly poor judgment on his part. Hopefully he learned the valuable lesson that incendiary communications will be taken seriously and investigated. Our police department takes all threats seriously and will pursue charges against any person responsible if the circumstances allow it. This includes the threat against SOU, which is still being investigated. On another, but related note, I would like to encourage any member of the community to engage me on any topic, and ask for clarification on anything the police department does. My email is [email protected] and my direct number is 541-552-2142. Tighe O’Meara is Ashland's chief of police. By Tighe O'Meara DailyTidings.com By Tighe O'Meara Posted Oct. 12, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... Business Name address Location, ST | website.com Find Southern Oregon Attractions Bars Restaurants Beauty Salons Entertainment Doctors Medical Specialists Contractors Education Lawn Services Lawyers Shopping Travel Tanning Used Cars Wedding Services ▼ Add your business here + Events Calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Propel Marketing Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Mobile Site Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Your privacy is important, read our privacy policy. © Copyright 2015 Local Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Local Media Group Publications Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted. DailyTidings.com | P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501