Comments (0) Best Flack - 2000
Mike Reed
Police departments in general are notoriously secretive and manipulative with their information. Some of the secretiveness is for good reason -- if a crucial fact in an ongoing investigation gets out to the press, it could hurt the case. The manipulation comes into play when a key fact could make the cops look bad. Like the fact that an unarmed, handcuffed suspect was given a black eye on the way to jail. Things like that. The worst police PIOs (Public Information Officers) will thwart journalists' efforts to get at records that reveal such things, delaying the release of key documents or going as far as outright lying about their existence. Such practice is against the law and often ends up biting the department in the ass, but it's done all the time anyway. And still other PIOs are always trying to manipulate the way a reporter writes a story. When it doesn't come out the way they want it, they take it personally and begin obstructing certain members of the fourth estate. Unlike those scoundrels Mike Reed plays it straight. He gets records and promptly faxes them to the reporter. He doesn't play favorites. He doesn't gum up the process, and he doesn't try to write the story for you. He's a classic, professional, just-the-facts-ma'am kind of cop. The way it should be.
