Cops & courts | Journalism COMM 204-404

The justice beat – from cops to courts and everything in between — is interesting and demanding. It demands, of course, complete accuracy and lots of running around. It’s interesting too, in that you get a complete view of your city or county, from bottom to top, and are exposed to the very best and the very worst people who live there.

Perhaps the best known journalist on the police beat was Edna Buchanan at the Miami Herald. Here’s a New Yorker profile by Calvin Trillin. Imagine a lead that starts: “Gary Robinson died hungry.”

Your usual contact on the police beat is the Public Information Officer (PIO) for the department. Usually there are emails for routine information and press releases that deal with felony information. Get on their email list and learn the official phone numbers if you are going to be on the beat.

The basic police story simply involves who was arrested, where, when and why. Be sure not to write that someone “was arrested for” a crime. Instead, stick to the facts, and write or say that someone was “charged with” a crime.

Example: “Police charged Fred Jones with armed robbery …” Do NOT write: “Fred Jones was arrested for armed robbery last week.”

You may also need to check with the sheriff’s office (which runs the jails and guards the courts) to see if someone has been released on bail.

If arrests are not listed via email to journalists, you are always free to examine the arrest record (aka “police blotter”) at the station house. If police don’t want you to see it, you may have to explain that in a democracy there is no such thing as a secret arrest. Police blotters are open to public inspection.

You are strongly advised, and sometimes obliged, to understand the ethics of crime reporting. You should never report the names of witnesses to, or victims of a crime, even if they are legally available. It is a major ethical issue on the police beat. Never. Seriously. Victims & witnesses. Totally off the record. There are other issues around pre-trial reporting as well. (A version of the Virginia Bar / Virginia Press Association guide to pre-trial reporting is here.)

Other typical police beat stories might involve a feature on the “Officer of the Year” (or also fire and rescue personnel) as well as the local crime rate and emergency response times. These tend not to be as timely as other news stories, but they humanize the essential people who work in these difficult jobs.

For reporters just starting out on the police beat, the idea of a deeper public interest perspective on the police may seem daunting. Here are some basic story ideas:

— Police, fire and EMS salaries: This is always a good story and can be easily obtained using comparative studies such as the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts annual budget summaries. In non-union states, the Fraternal Order of the Police will sometimes speak for the uniformed officers who might be willing to speak up for higher pay. It’s in everyone’s interest not to underpay police.

— Police spending: Reporters sometimes localize a national story about increased spending on police. Then use your state auditor’s report (APA in Virginia) to compare rising costs of local and regional police departments over time. Then, armed with statistical information, you’re in a good position to ask questions about police budgets.

— Statistics and annual reports: Each police department, the Virginia State Police and the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission all keep statistics on arrests and convictions.

Areas of controversy

— Red flag laws — These laws allow family, friends and others to petition courts to temporarily take firearms from people who may be a risk to themselves or others. Nineteen states, including Virginia and the District of Columbia, have red flag laws. Research has associated red flag laws with lower suicide rates, but there is less peer-reviewed research on whether red flag laws help prevent mass shootings.

— Equipment: What on earth do rural police departments do with gigantic Mine Resistant vehicles and combat turrets? Track the transfers of military equipment to your police departments. Here are a few national stories: Here is the source for the quarterly government report on the transfer program (click on “Alaska to Wyoming“) and here are some of the things you’re looking for: Visual Journalist June 2020 And here is a Reuters story about the overall issues.

— Civil Asset forfeiture: Police in some states can seize assets of suspected criminals, even without a conviction. ProPublica has the story.

— Police disciplinary records: About half of states allow releases through FOIA requests, according to ProPublica. In July, 2021, Virginia law changed so that disciplinary records and complaints are now public under the FOIA.

— Drug task force funding usually comes from state and federal sources, but in some communities, the task force is directly financed by fines paid by those charged with drug offenses. The potential for corruption and conflicts of interest is serious.

Unpublishing: The idea of “unpublishing” small crime news stories about private people — an American twist on the European privacy law’s “right to be forgotten” — has raised basic questions about the way we pursue crime news itself, as two Philadelphia Free Press editors note in this Nieman Lab article. “Let’s face it: Crime news is terrible,” they write.

Racial issues: To what extent have racial minorities been more subject to criminal penalties and less protected by the law? Would we find, for example, that Black men are more likely to be imprisoned on drug charges, or that Black women would be less likely to be taken seriously following sexual assault? A 2017 report noted that Black Virginians were over-represented in the prison population for marijuana violations.

More resources:

IRE Resources for investigating police misconduct and abuse.

IT’S PUBLIC INFORMATION

In a democracy, there are no secret arrests or trials, but sometimes the police withhold information anyway and need to be reminded of public rights under the Constitution and the state Freedom of Information Act.

You can obtain the name of any person arrested, and the charge, and their current disposition (in or out of jail, bail amount, etc) from the Police Blotter located at the main desk of any police station, even if it is not reported on the police web site.

There is no reason for news reporters to withhold the names of anyone over age 18 who is arrested and charged with a crime. However, there are strong ethical problems and potential safety issues involved in releasing the names of crime witnesses or victims. Please ask for guidance from editors or others if unsure about this. So, (again), for ethical reasons, don’t report the names of sexual assault victims or witnesses to crimes.

It’s important to assume innocence until guilt is proven in other ways as well. For instance, if the police tell you they have a confession, or that the evidence against the suspect is solid, or that there were eyewitnesses to the crime, remember that all this information might not be admitted in court. All too often the police and prosecutors use the media to help influence potential jurors before a trial begins. This is unethical, but it happens all the time. There are guidelines to the ethical dilemmas here – For instance, the Virginia Bar Association – Virginia Press Association pre-trial publicity guidelines.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE LINKS

RU annual police report and the monthly crime & fire log
Virginia Tech daily crime logs
UVa daily crime log
The way it used to be: Secret complaints
The way it is as of July, 2021: disciplinary records and complaints are now public under the Virginia FOIA.
Radford city police have a weekly crime report they send out that has no names and no details of crimes, but it is sometimes useful as a lead to a story, or for providing statistical information.
New River Regional Jail — It may look nice, and it even has solar collectors, but inmates in the jail sued over living conditions in the summer of 2015.
State sex 0ffender registry
History of the crime beat – Poynter
Virginia District Court case information. Very poorly organized.
Virginia Circuit Court case information . Very very poorly organized.
Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police — and their 2006 FOIA manual

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

Interesting take on the drug wars — A 2018 book by Johann Hari “It’s not the drug, it’s the cage.”
How I covered the police beat by Wayne Dawkins
WikiHow — How to cover the police beat

SOURCES

Bridgewater College https://www.bridgew.edu/sites/bridgew/files/media/pdf_document/2021-BSU-Clery-Report.pdf

Christopher Newport University https://cnu.edu/police/_pdf/annualreport.pdf

George Mason University http://police.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2021-Annual-Security-and-Fire-Safety-Report.pdf

Hampden-Sydney College https://www.hsc.edu/public-safety-and-police

Hampton University http://docs.hamptonu.edu/student/Annual_Security_Report_2021_20211001134249.pdf

James Madison University https://www.jmu.edu/police/clerycompliance/annual-security-and-fire-safety-report.pdf

Liberty University https://www.liberty.edu/police/wp-content/uploads/sites/100/2021/09/2021_Annual-Security-Report.pdf

Longwood University https://www.longwood.edu/media/police/public-site/Annual-Security-and-Fire-Safety-Report-2021.pdf

Mary Baldwin University https://go.marybaldwin.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2021/09/ASR-MBU-2021-Final.pdf

Marymount University https://marymount.edu/student-life/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/09/Annual-Safety-Report-2021-Final.pdf

Norfolk State University https://www.nsu.edu/campus-security/security-booklet-2021.aspx