Dealing with the police in journalism

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Recount your stories of bureacracy and offhandishness.

Last week I rang their press office to ask about 2 questions regarding ketamine use, they said "it might take a day or two, email your questions to us", fair enough I thought, and finished my article, planning to put in the quotes later.

A week later, no reply, so I email them to check they got my email ok, I recieve a reply saying "your request has been sent to the National Drug Unit".

So yesterday I call the National Drug Unit myself, because at this stage if I don't finish the article I'll procrastinate and probably never do it, they give me the number of a Superintendent, I ring him all day yesterday and eventually get him this afternoon.

He asks me what my questions are, I'm sure he's going to answer them, but no, he asks me to hold on, then says he'll call me back.

He calls back ten minutes later and tells me that the Superintendent has never seen my request for a brief interview from the Press Office, and so I need to get them to send this to him.

He tells me to email the press office and tell them that the NDU is aware of that I have made a request to ask them some questions, but they need to be emailed my request to ask these questions.

It's funny, how is anyone supposed to get some work done! I'm tempted to write the Super's name and quote him as "we know nothing about ketamine that we could tell you without some serious research, we didn't even know Britain had a 4 million pound haul of it 5 months ago. Britain's not near Ireland is it???"

It's almost funny.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 12:25 (nineteen years ago)

First, they're one of those organisations whose press offices see their function as letting out only what's required by statute. Everything else is therefore damage limitation. They're incredibly risk-averse even compared with many government departments. And that's just the press offices – everyone else is trained to answer as little as possible because there's so much potential for letting slip something confidential.

Second, they're all big unwieldy bureaucracies anyway, so even if they wanted to say something useful, they probably couldn't. And agencies and divisions won't talk to each other because they're all competitive.

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 12:36 (nineteen years ago)

police in being useless shocker

― teh_kit haev been evicted, oh noes! (g-kit), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 12:50 (nineteen years ago)

what were the two questions?

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 13:12 (nineteen years ago)

1. I have some ketamine here. How do I use it?
2. Some of your men confiscated my favourite 4 million pound container 5 months ago. Can I have it back?

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

i have found the police union - can't remember what it's called in the UK - is 1,000,000,000 times more responsive than official police press people, and can often direct you right to the person you need to speak with (who's NOT a press officer, and so then actually is helpful)

the email thing is laughable though. i mean if you ever come up against that i think you kinda just have to say "i'm sorry, my deadline is tighter than that. i really need to speak with someone today". email = down the memory hole

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 14:21 (nineteen years ago)

yeah I tried that, he said they only can speak once it's been cleared by the Press Office, I mean are they really unable to use their discretion? Even a tiny bit.

the questions basically concern the fact that they publish a report at the end of a year so I asked had there been any increase in seizures of ketamine in the first 7 months of this year, and then a more general PR quote like, "does the growing use of ketamine in the UK lead you to believe that it will soon grow in popularity in Ireland"

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 14:39 (nineteen years ago)

you need to push for freedom of information act in ireland

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 15:18 (nineteen years ago)

Cops give crap quote and respond poorly to good-natured joshing.

― Pete W (peterw), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

I would assume no, they aren't allowed to comment to the press without running it by the press office, legal team, etc.

This'll be in case they inadvertently say something which leads someone print a "police hint at Ireland's a growing drugs problem" when that's not the official line they want to peddle (if you'll pardon the pun).

A company I worked with had some people involved in a scandal elsewhere within the company. We were all told if anyone called looking for a quote we were to say nothing at all other than "no comment, you'll have to contact our press office, here is their number". Even an "I don't know" could have been misconstrued as "the company doesn't even tell its employees anything/their staff are too stupid to read the papers", apparently. When you're dealing with a national law enforcement agency, I imagine this level of caution is paramount.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

Apologies for the appalling grammatical construction (i.e. gibberish) in my second paragraph.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 16:36 (nineteen years ago)

"Police were unable to say whether ketamine a growing problem in Ireland" ;-0.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 17:34 (nineteen years ago)

I am tempted to use that, though I figure it might look bad when I'm selling the article.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 10 August 2006 10:27 (nineteen years ago)

yeah I tried that, he said they only can speak once it's been cleared by the Press Office, I mean are they really unable to use their discretion? Even a tiny bit.

that was some rule that Judge McDowell brought in (or maybe he was getting heavy regarding some rule that was already there but widely ignored). I think he was doing it to threaten cops with the sack/chokey if they gave off the record briefings.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 10 August 2006 10:46 (nineteen years ago)

always comes back to Michael McDowell!

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 10 August 2006 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

Since the police in my region (north of The Netherlands) got a bit more centralized again two years ago, their press office has gotten a lot more helpful and professional, if also more distant and 'no nonsense'. When noone's in the office there's always someone available 24/7 via cellphone. Before this new set-up you never knew if someone was available. It could even take two days before getting the right person. That doesn't go well with deadlines. So that's definately gotten better now.

But the worst about the police are the officers themselves. When - at a scene or something - you simply ask them what went on, they can act so overly secretive about every minor detail, when there's really nothing secret, shocking or unusual about it. That bugs me the most. I'm just trying to do my job and here they are acting all "sorry, can't tell you this/that yet", when there really is no point in keeping that information back. It's like they suffer from a lack of self-esteem, like they want to be regarded as very important, knowing of information *only* they may know. A simple call to the press-office, and there's my info, but it shouldn't be like that.

― Gerard (Gerard), Thursday, 10 August 2006 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

Didn't read Ailsa's comment before, and you have a pretty strong case. I don't expect them to give full disclosure, but there's something called simple social behaviour, being polite and *not* being an ass about every fucking minor detail. They get a feeling of power out of it which is not right.

― Gerard (Gerard), Thursday, 10 August 2006 11:16 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah this is OTM, they definitely get a kick out of these things, obviously not all are like this but it's common. With Irish police you often get this kind "now hold on there a minute" attitude.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 10 August 2006 11:30 (nineteen years ago)

So is it inherent to being a cop? Or a fireman, for that matter. Agreed with Ronan that we shouldn't generalize it, but firemen may be even worse. I once got into a fit with the head of the fire-dept. He physicaly tried to stop my photographer from taking pictures. It got pretty ugly really. When 'his men and women' were fighting a huge fire, the commander was trying to keep the press from taking pictures, since they had a very hard time getting the fire under control. It still amazes me to this day.
Ofcourse it comes down to the person you've got in front of you, but a lot of people from the police or fire department get off on their supposed upper hand of knowledge in these situations. But the 'I'll let you do your work if you let me do mine' often seems a throwback for them, whereas I myself don't feel that way the other way 'round.

Perhaps it's got to do with the significant amount of cops (especially motor-highway cops) and firemen who have moustaches? ;)

― Gerard (Gerard), Thursday, 10 August 2006 15:11 (nineteen years ago)

Source development could help if you are planning on dealing with them again. Write a puff feature piece on a cop or squad and suddenly you have contacts.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 10 August 2006 15:13 (nineteen years ago)

True, that's the easy way of getting your contacts, but one I'm not willing to sink that low for ('cause that's what it feels like, ass-licking). Having an 'insider' though is indeed the best solution. And in my experience - changing crews, commanders and whatnot - there are always a few people (a minority, but still) who do understand that both the police and the media benefit from good contacts in the long run.

― Gerard (Gerard), Thursday, 10 August 2006 15:19 (nineteen years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Minneapolis development: https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/07/24/minneapolis-city-council-votes-9-3-to-eliminate-mpd-public-information-officer-role/

― Get the point? Good, let's dance with nunchaku. (Eric H.), Friday, 24 July 2020 16:27 (five years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.