Seneca releases statement on Hammond case

Thru its new public relations firm, Seneca has a new way of dealing with media inquiries about the July 26 shooting death of Zachary Hammond.  City Administrator Greg Dietterick said it’s about getting accurate information released and to provide the media with a process for getting information.  Dietterick made this following statement:  “Many media stories have been written, and will continue to be written, since this tragic event occurred on July 26, 2015.  The City of Seneca, through the police department, through my office, through the city attorney’s office, through elected officials, has been inundated with phone calls, emails, and requests for all kinds of interviews and information.  With our limited staff, and time spent on other daily responsibilities, we have tried to be as responsive as possible.  Although we’ve been criticized by others as nonresponsive, personally, I think we’ve done as best as possible based on the circumstances.  But we can’t keep up with the continuous bombardment of requests and allegations.  Starting today, all future media inquiries will be directed to Complete Public Relations….A lot of the information the media is asking for is readily available.  This information includes the incident report, the personnel records of Lt. Mark Tiller, policies and procedures of the department, and a copy of the search warrant.  All of this is available and will be provided per the cost of FOIA information, which is our policy.  We feel this is standard in the industry….Finally, we are very limited in what we can say.  This is an ongoing state and federal investigation.  We don’t speak for SLED, the FBI, or the circuit solicitor’s office.”