Assuming this means what I think it means, I can see one huge benefit of this policy. All local crimes such as petty larcenies, non-violent possession of drugs, etc. where there was an arrest will be kept out of the paper, protecting the privacy of the accused. The problem with newspapers printing all these minor crimes is that in the eyes of the public you are seen as guilty automatically before you get your day in court. This can ruin or derail someones life when they are innocent or can result in much larger consequences beyond the punishment meted out by the state when they are guilty.<p>Once this information is public, it gets printed on the internet, and then it ends up in dozens if not hundreds of extortionous "mug shot sites" on the internet, each of which try to get a couple of hundred bucks from the person to remove the information.<p>Crime statistics should be public information. Guilty verdicts should be public information, but for non-violent crimes with no victims, the entity getting the information should not have reprinting rights, especially not the right to print the name of the convicted.<p>At the end of the day, it is out justice system that is responsible for sentencing. Violating the privacy of the accused (even the committed when there are no victims) only serves to subject people to a second public "trial", where members of the community each mete out their own sentence without due process.