Outrages & Insights

I've got a story in today's paper, a follow on Tuesday's blog post, on efforts by the Buffalo Police Department to suppress crime news. Here's a companion Q&A with Vanessa Thomas and T.J. Pignataro, who are The News' two primary police reporters.

Vanessa has worked the day shift for the past six years. T.J. has covered nights for more than five years. They work out of a press office in Buffalo police headquarters and often report from crime scenes. I interviewed them Tuesday about the way police brass have been making it harder for them to do their job informing the public. They collaborated on their answers, and thus speak as one.

The police department brass has taken a couple of steps to restrict your access to information and personnel. What do you think has triggered that?

"The mayor appears to be focused on maintaining a positive image of the city as much as possible and control the flow of information. When the mayor took office and appointed his top police brass, there seemed to be an underlying quest to make the city appear to be as safe a possible.

"For example, the mayor's spokesman, Peter Cutler, once tried to tell one of us what the lead of the story should be, and insisted what information should be put at the bottom of the story.

"A few months into the Brown administration, access to police supervisors was eliminated. Then, it was reduced further after the March 2007 appointment of Mike DeGeorge as spokesman. Only DeGeorge, Commissioner Gipson and the two deputy commissioners were authorized to speak with the press.

"The move didn't only upset reporters. It also upset police supervisors who were long trusted to speak with the media. They were also upset because information was being filtered and diluted from police brass, lacked important details and was sometimes inaccurate."

Talk about the changes in incident reports you use as the starting point for reporting crime.

"Within the past few months, incident reports have been pared to absolute bare bones. Often times, they lack the address of the incident, time of the incident, victim's age and address and significant details about the alleged crime.

"Police officials say they moved this information to a different computer database in the department, however, reporters aren't permitted access to this database."

How has that made your job more difficult?

"As the result of the change in the police department's policy and the changes in the incident reports, reporters are forced to take the additional step of contacting DeGeorge to get even the most basic facts about the crime.

"Some reporters covering the police beat say they are sometimes unable to reach DeGeorge to get these essential details. It's impractical to assume he would be available 24/7."

The commissioner has also ordered officers and everyone below the rank of deputy commissioner not to talk to reporters. How has that played out?

"It basically means that the officers doing the investigations and with first-hand knowledge of the cases are silenced.

"As the result, reporters now get information filtered by only a very select few at the top.

"Also, some officers have expressed frustration about having their ability to talk to reporters eliminated and resent when the police brass don't portray the "true story" especially as they know it to be as the case investigators."

How does access and transparency compare with when Tony Masiello was mayor and Rocco Diina was commissioner?

"The previous administration allowed allowed reporters to interview everyone from officers to detectives, detective sergeants, lieutenants, captains, inspectors, chiefs, etc. at crime scenes, at their stations, on their cell phones and so on.

"We had around the clock access and supervisors were trusted to release information to the press at their discretion. There was an expectation that officers shouldn't reflect badly on the police department when being interviewed by reporters."