Typical Day of A Crime Reporter
- Thread starter Jeanette
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It would depend on the size of the paper and the city. We are a city of 50,000+ The police reporter also has other duties. Basically, he would be at headquarters in the morning when the night shift ended. As soon as the supervisors reviewed all the incident reports, the reporter would read the public copy, take his notes and prepare his column.
He would also be ar HQ for any big events and news conferences on big crimes.
Only certain officers were allowed to make statements to the reporter, so he didn't bother trying to interview the officers or detectives.
He would also be ar HQ for any big events and news conferences on big crimes.
Only certain officers were allowed to make statements to the reporter, so he didn't bother trying to interview the officers or detectives.
I assume you mean for newspapers.
The crime reporter I know has a desk in a press room at police HQ. She works there generally from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. unless something requires her to stay late.
She basically has two responsibilities:
1. She has to write a couple briefs on whatever crime there is that day -- a murder, armed robbery, etc. There's probably a crime briefs section in your local paper. That has to be filled.
2. She needs to work on bigger stories aimed for the front page or the front of the local section, whether hard-hitting or feature. Those stories can take days or weeks to work on and will frequently entail off-hours work.
I see you're in LA. Parker Center's press room, I believe, is staffed 24 hours per day.
The crime reporter I know has a desk in a press room at police HQ. She works there generally from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. unless something requires her to stay late.
She basically has two responsibilities:
1. She has to write a couple briefs on whatever crime there is that day -- a murder, armed robbery, etc. There's probably a crime briefs section in your local paper. That has to be filled.
2. She needs to work on bigger stories aimed for the front page or the front of the local section, whether hard-hitting or feature. Those stories can take days or weeks to work on and will frequently entail off-hours work.
I see you're in LA. Parker Center's press room, I believe, is staffed 24 hours per day.
If you wanna PM me or ask more specifics, I *am* a crime reporter. 
Medium-sized daily in a big newspaper chain.
At my paper and in nearby cities (SF Bay Area), we don't keep desks at the police stations anymore, but as others have said, it all depends on the size of the paper and city. A few big cities still have desks in the PD.
A lot of my colleagues around the country have told me they don't physically go check police logs anymore, they (like me) rely on emailed logs from the departments. It kind of sucks, but that's the way it's done these days.
The nature of police reporting has changed a lot in the last ten years.
As I said, feel free to ask more!
I should add: there are two kinds of "typical" workdays -- one in which nothing big is happening and the other in which a big murder, shooting spree or high-profile case breaks open.The two are quite different. Do you know which one you're thinking of?
Medium-sized daily in a big newspaper chain.At my paper and in nearby cities (SF Bay Area), we don't keep desks at the police stations anymore, but as others have said, it all depends on the size of the paper and city. A few big cities still have desks in the PD.
A lot of my colleagues around the country have told me they don't physically go check police logs anymore, they (like me) rely on emailed logs from the departments. It kind of sucks, but that's the way it's done these days.
The nature of police reporting has changed a lot in the last ten years.
As I said, feel free to ask more!
I should add: there are two kinds of "typical" workdays -- one in which nothing big is happening and the other in which a big murder, shooting spree or high-profile case breaks open.The two are quite different. Do you know which one you're thinking of?
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Hi, Gatita! Thanks for this, and thanks for the offer for more information. I will PM you with my questions.