The Reporter's Notebook, Ep. 15: Public Safety Reporting Standards
Las Cruces police close off Manzanita Street between Amador Avenue and Lohman Avenue with yellow tape on Sunday, May 10, 2020. (Nathan J. Fish / Las Cruces Sun-News)
In this week’s episode, we’re talking about our newspaper’s new reporting standards surrounding cops, courts and crime — public safety reporting, as we’re calling it now. Why, for example, are you seeing fewer mugshots of alleged criminals in news stories? Why are we adding editors notes about sexual assault resources, or suicide prevention resources or domestic violence support resources at the top of our stories, now?
Also: Some stories are free. Some count against the number of stories you can see for free without a subscription. And some are “PREMIUM,” which means you can’t read them without being a subscriber. Why is that? And how do we make those decisions in the newsroom?
Things are changing in the way we’re bringing you the news. But things are also changing in the way that our government agencies are providing us with information. I’m thinking, most notably, about the police shooting of 75-year-old Amelia Baca — an elderly woman, suffering from dementia, who was shot and killed by the Las Cruces Police Department on Saturday, April 16.
We're joined by Sun-News reporter Justin Garcia, who covers breaking news and public safety for the newspaper, as well as Sun-News News Director Lucas Peerman.
This podcast was originally published by the Las Cruces Sun-News.
