Reporters: Get to know police before a crisis

By Pam Lannom
NINA Second Vice President

OAKBROOK TERRACE - For many community newspaper reporters, the most contact they have with police is when they stop in to look at the arrest blotter. So what happens when a big story breaks in a small town? Reporters had better be ready for it.

"You never know what's going to happen. You never know where it's going to happen," Medill newspaper department chairman David Nelson told attendees at the "Cops, Courts and Community" workshop April 26. NINA sponsored the workshop, held at the Oak Trust Credit Union.

"Anticipate that something bad is going to happen, because it will," Nelson said.

Nelson, Burr Ridge police Chief Herbert Timm and attorney Don Craven agreed the best way to prepare for the big story is to talk about how to handle it long before it ever breaks. Timm should know. He was the police chief in Winnetka when Laurie Dann opened fire on students at Hubbard Woods School.

"I will never forget what took place May 29, 1988," said Timm, who showed slides and discussed the events of the day in detail. Timm became the single contact for the media and held that responsibility while he led the investigation.

The slides showed just how quickly reporters from TV and newspapers arrived and how police had to deal with them at the same time as they were working the case. The questions members of the press ask are similar to the questions police are asking themselves, Timm said.

"We got some good ideas from the media out there," he said.

The stress was so high that day that some members of the media were breaking out into fights, Timm said. No one really was prepared for the kind of national coverage the shooting generated.

"The time to have the discussion is not at the car accident," said Craven, who serves as general counsel for the Illinois Press Association and owns a law firm in Springfield. "Rule No. 1 is there are no rules."

Police can keep reporters far enough away so they don't interfere with the officers' ability to do their jobs. How far away is far enough? That's one of the things reporters and police should discuss over a cup of coffee.

"The most important thing you need to do is talk to them early and often," Craven said.

One way to help develop a good relationship, he said, is to report on some of the good news coming out of the police department.

"When was the last time someone went down and interviewed the crime prevention officer?" Craven asked. "If you spend time with them on the good stuff, they'll trust you to do the bad stuff fairly."

Nelson suggested that newspapers spend less time reporting small, routine police blotter items. "That's not enough," he said.

Instead, reporters should write stories that are more relevant to readers - stories that look at crime trends, public safety issues and crime prevention.

Newspapers also should follow up on the arrests printed in the blotter section, Nelson said, advising editors to talk with publishers about the resources needed to do that.

Reporters also have an obligation to let the public know what kind of job police officers, firefighters and other village employees are doing.

"Part of your job is to say how they did their job," Craven said. "You can make them look very good or you can make them look very bad."

It's not fair, but it's a two-way street, he added. If reporters make police look bad when it's not warranted, police just might choose to shut them out from the scene of a fire or accident.

"Who gets served (then)?" Craven asked. "Nobody."

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