The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "Police departments" ...
-
Strategies for Covering the Police Beat and Doing Quick Enterprise Stories
Get tips from Thompson, an IRE award winning reporter, that include getting your hands on police documents(blank ones are important too), riding along with officers on duty, and acquiring the best sources.
Tags: police beat; courthouse beat; cops; police department; police documents
-
Tips for taking on repeat criminal stories
Pardue makes suggestions for the questions to pursue when reporting on repeat criminal stories.
Tags: crime; probation; department of corrections; police department; crime statistics;
-
Covering Cops: Tips for delving into the department- and your community
Seven simple tips for gathering data on police departments and creating a relationship beyond a single story.
Tags: cops; police; police department; law firms; paper trail; online resources
-
Tipsheets on investigations of race and policing
The authors discuss a recent Philadelphia Inquirer investigation into racial profiling in suburban police departments. They then offer suggestions for reporters pursuing similar stories. The suggestions include where to find data and how to analyze it.
Tags: data; racial profiling; police; justice statistics; local government
-
Policing the Police
Sward explains how she and other colleagues at the San Francisco Chronicle reported on the unnecessary force used by some members of the San Francisco Police Department. They ultimately exposed that one of the officers, the son of an assistant chief of police, was still on probation and had amassed a long string of incidents in which he used force on suspects, when he was accused of getting into a brawl with two civilians over a bag of steak fajitas. She explains what records they obtained, how their database was built and what they would do differently next time.
Tags: law enforcement; crime; police officers; FOI; public records; criminal justice system
-
Policing the Police
Eiserer gives 10 tips to reporters who are investigating the "health" of their police department. She explains how to examine the quality of a department by taking a look at the people they hire. En espanol: #2906
-
Sources for Evaluating Police Departments
This tipsheet offers a list of possible sources that can be useful when investigating police departments.
-
Deals with Cops May Be More Than You Bargained For
Getting access to police scenes or even activities such as drug raids can be a big boon for a broadcast station. However the legal strings attached may be more than reporters might think. Tobin details the legal implications of working with police departments. He also explains ways to avoid certain pitfalls in such deals.
Tags: law; media law; lawyers; police; broadcast; legal issues
-
KDFW's Coverage of the Dallas Police/Fire Pay Referendum
A presentation of the followed steps and the useful information retrieved by using database analysis in preparing this series of articles.
Tags: CAR; pay referendum; police department
-
Investigating Police and Seized Drug Money
"Law enforcement agencies across the country were evading state laws to keep millions of dollars in seized drug money with the help of the U.S. Department of Justice. The outline below contains documents and sources that probably are available for investigating this topic in your region."
Tags: drugs; money; police; Justice Department; crime; attorneys; judges