Police press

From stories about public intoxication and underage drinking to reports of robberies and busted drug deals, the Indiana Daily Student covers police news from a variety of angles. Each of those crime stories, however, appears in the IDS only after student journalists undergo a process through the different departments to find out exactly what happened. \nThe two primary police agencies we report on -- the IU Police Department and the Bloomington Police Department -- have slightly different methods for telling us what they've been up to. \nFor IUPD reports, IDS campus editors and the police beat reporters receive an e-mail each morning, called the daily log. This message contains a list of all the people arrested in the last 24 hours, as well as entries for all police responses, from accidents to thefts to drug arrests. IDS staffers peruse this message -- which on busy weekends can grow quite lengthy -- looking for newsworthy entries. The reporter then calls IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger, who looks up the police report and summarizes it over the phone. Minger will not let reporters look at the reports, but will answer questions with the information he is legally allowed to give. Sometimes for stories that break after hours, the reporter has to talk to a shift commander who, at times, will not comment at all. \nBPD works a little differently. The IDS police reporter has to show up at press time each day at police headquarters, 220 E. Third St., where he or she is allowed to look at a physical log of arrests. If the reporter wants to write a story about any of the entries, he or she must request to speak to a shift commander who will, like IUPD, read through and summarize the report while taking questions. Again, though, reporters are not allowed to actually look at the physical police report but must take notes on the shift commander's verbal summary. \nThis setup is not ideal for reporters and, at times, leads to confusion or omissions of information that turn out to be important to a story. For example, earlier this week, the IDS ran an article about an assault that occurred in a fraternity house. We initially reported precisely what was read to the reporter from the police report. As it turned out though, the house in question is actually home to two different fraternities, and we only named one in the story. We ultimately ran a clarification in Thursday's paper, making note that two fraternities are housed in the same building where the assault occurred. \nWhile we hope problems like this do not arise often, we do our best to avoid them, clarify them or, if necessary, correct them. Police reporting can be a complicated task, but IDS staff members work to make sure everything is both accurate and complete.