Hildebrand is editor and lone reporter at The Record-Courier. He has covered emergency services in the Eastern Sierra since 1988, starting out in Ridgecrest, Calif., before moving to Gardnerville in 1989. He was managing editor of Nevada’s capital city daily, the Nevada Appeal.
Anyone covering arrests and court cases should keep in mind that these stories are often about the worst day in someone’s life. What we report, whether it’s a parade or an arrest, freezes in time at the moment someone presses send on a story. But that’s not how real life works.
When I started out as a police reporter in 1988, I was assigned to go down to the station and write up the arrests for the blotter. While that was all anyone asked of me, I wanted to know what happened to the people who were the subjects of that reporting. So, I started following up on the people I’d named, despite being told the paper didn’t want to pay me to sit in court.
For decades, newspapers large and small have sent reporters to the police station to look through the arrest logs and generate lists of people who’ve been taken into custody. More enlightened publications only name those arrested in felonies. However, far more compelling is what happens after that arrest.
When we name someone, when we publish their photo, I feel we take on the responsibility to find out what happens in that person’s case.
I would no more remove a true story from the website than I would razor it out of the newspaper’s bound volume. However, the internet offers us an opportunity to report what’s happened to someone after that worst day.
I regularly update stories with new information when it becomes available. Why wouldn’t I do that with crime stories?
If someone has graduated from a diversion program or has been acquitted, that’s not just news, but a real life redemption arc.
People’s lives don’t freeze at their worst moments, and the stories about those moments shouldn’t either.
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