Last night at 7 p.m. in West Hall, sponsored by the Department of Journalism and the Public Relations Student Society, four panelists, discussed the roles of the media and law enforcement in the sniper arrests.
Before the panel started discussing, a brief video was played of the events that led to the capture of the two men suspected in the sniper shootings. The video concluded that the two men were the snipers because the gun found in the car was the same one used to shoot 11 of the 13 victims.
Two panelists were from law enforcement fields, and the other two were from media fields. The discussion was led by a mediator who asked questions to the panelists, who then answered. The panelists were Frank Styles, Lucas County Chief Investigator, Capt. Ronald Span of the Toledo Police Department, Joselyn Mose, senior telecommunications student and Bob Jones, WTOL court and crime reporter.
The role the media and law enforcement played during the search for the sniper was addressed in different ways by the panelists. Styles believes that the media and law enforcement should be a marriage, like any marriage, they have problems.
“There are things that the media should not have knowledge of, we don’t want the suspects to know what the police are doing,” Styles said.
He continued with talking about how police need information that only the suspect would know and if the media lets this information out to the public, the police would have to deal with copycats.
Span believes that the media and law enforcement should use each other to their advantage.
“I need to develop a trust with the media so I know I can tell them things that is needed for a story. But at the same time I can’t play favorites,” Span said.
If Span played favorites he would end up getting hurt because when he needs help from the media, the people that he didn’t help won’t help him.
Both Span and Mose got tired of seeing all the publicity that came from the sniper attacks. But, Mose thought that was what the American public wanted to hear, especially after a poll was sent out and the majority of the people said they did want to see the coverage.
Jones was not tired of the coverage, he said it was fascinating. “I wanted to find out what the conversations were between the sniper and the police,” he said. “I do believe the media is guilty of going overboard, though.”
As a reporter, Jones was able to understand the frustration of the reporters that weren’t told what they wanted to hear. With Chief Moose’s press conferences, it was evident that the police were holding something back, but they did it for a reason, Span said.
Students were present at the discussion, some came on their own while others came for a class. Audrey Weber, journalism major, came on her own, but was persuaded by her teacher.
“They [the panelists] said a lot of valid things. I liked how they had different people with different viewpoints,” Weber said. “Some of the people were a little shady, they didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes, but Ron was straight forward, I enjoyed him.”
Meredith Campbell, University student was required to go for class. She agrees with the fact that not everyone said exactly what they had on their mind, “Personally, I didn’t honestly believe them when the two media and two police men said they cooperate with each other all the time. It defeated the purpose of having a panel.”
Campbell didn’t like the fact that there really was no debate, “I understand they were being professional, and I appreciated it, but it made me a little bored.”
Whether it was boring because there was no debate, or enjoying to listen to the different panelists talk, the idea that came across was that the media and law enforcement do work together and they accomplish a lot when it is done right.
