How not to handle the media

[btfp]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=175_1403050075

This Sgt who anyone can see acts unprofessionally in this video just cost the Suffolk PD 200 grand.

Leave the cameraman alone. In this video children can walk where they want to. Therefore he can walk where they are. This clown acted in a way that was not in accordance with his training.

Had i been the chief, he would lose his stripes for sure..cannot have a supervisor acting in that way.

"I've been doing this for 30 years and there is nothing you can hold over my head" " except this video .

What a fool. Just leave the cameraman alone. This is why i keep preaching this.

[swat_op506]

// SMH.
A "respect my 'thor-a-tay" response.

[np47d8]

These kinds of things are so bizarre to me when I see them online. I've been a news photographer for 20+ years and I've been harassed by non-LEOs at scenes, but I don't think I've ever quite had an officer of the law tell me that adamantly to just "go away". I've seen it in Hollywood movies plenty of times, but not in real life. Once at a river drowning, I had some LEOs ask me not to shoot the story at all and just leave, because the victim's brother was upset that I was there. -But I explained that the media can't just decide to not cover something just because someone's upset about our covering it. Someone drowned in a river. That doesn't happen every day and it's not a natural way to die. It's news. They immediately understood my point of view and allowed me to continue shooting, and just kept the brother a good distance away from me.

I'm not sure what kind of discipline this officer in this video received, if any, and 200k sounds like it would be chump change to a police department. The department did make a training video on how to deal with the media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBwrkw6155M

Much of what's in that video, though, seems liked it would be obvious to anyone who's lived in America for more than a year. Duh. LEOs really need a training video to know those things?

[BTR1701]

The department did make a training video on how to deal with the media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBwrkw6155M

Even that video gets it wrong in some places. They differentiated when they can seize the camera of a member of the media vs. cameras belonging to regular citizens. There's actually no legal or constitutional distinction between a TV cameraman and a citizen using a cell phone camera. You don't have 'special' or expanded 1st Amendment rights because your local news station signs your paycheck. And when you consider that these days, many people perform a media function by blogging and tweeting news stories, the distinction becomes even more meaningless. You don't have to be employed by NBC or Fox to be a reporter anymore.

[tanksoldier]

They told us in the academy: "The media can go anywhere the public can go... so make your outer perimeter really big".

[np47d8]

They told us in the academy: "The media can go anywhere the public can go... so make your outer perimeter really big".

So I guess your instructors in the academy would be at odds then with the part of the training video that says, "It is improper to expand a crime scene perimeter for the sole purpose of interfering with the right of the media and the public to observe and record police activity.

[tanksoldier]

So I guess your instructors in the academy would be at odds then with the part of the training video that says

I think they would be at odds with a self important ******bag.

1. Which training video? Is that the only training video on the subject ever made in the history of the universe?

2. Is that an opinion of some OTHER instructors who made a video, is it case law or is it black letter law?

3. It is PROPER to designate a perimeter that prevents the public or press from interfering in a police investigation. It's easier to shrink your perimeter than it is to expand it, so start big.

[ftttu]

I do what I can to have the media as close as possible and to give them as much info as possible. Even so, I've had some run ins over the years. I really loved one guy driving around my tape and over my scene. He appeared to not understand or even care of the reason I why I was so mad at him. He told me something like he had a right to be there. He was so close for interference with my duties.

But yeah, that video is not even close to the norm. Wouldn't happen around my area.

[np47d8]

1. Which training video? Is that the only training video on the subject ever made in the history of the universe?

It's my understanding was that the department that officer works for made that video in response to the incident and subsequent 200k settlement.

2. Is that an opinion of some OTHER instructors who made a video, is it case law or is it black letter law?

I would think it's an opinion, otherwise they would have said it's "illegal". If there were such laws on the books, it would be too hard to enforce because it's hard for investigators to know at first how wide one should set up a perimeter on a crime scene.

[HCSO511]

I want to watch that video in front of the so called 30 year veteran so I can point in his face and laugh at him. This way he knows how ignorant I think he is. I hate it when bad cops make my profession look like such fools. If youre going to make an arrest you better be sure the actions of the person are a crime. Lots of people make me angry in my job but I cant just arrest people because Im mad. I feel for the guys of this department who Im certain are mostly hard working people just trying to make their community better and support their families. The problem with screwing up in LE, especially this blatantly, is people dont say what an idiot, they say what an ignorant department.