Westword Investigation Catches Colorado Cops—and Local Media—in a Tough Spot

By: Corey Hutchins | CJR

Last week, in a fantastic cover story for the Denver-based alt-weekly Westword, reporter Alan Prendergast chronicled some police work in a small southern Colorado town that was so magnificently incompetent, so recklessly negligent, it makes the Keystone Cops look like Seal Team Six.

Prendergast’s report is a story about government gone bad, a local glimpse into a failing war on drugs. But it’s also a media critique: a reminder that we need strong, attentive coverage of local government, and that when reporters pass along police information to their readers and viewers, we need to follow up if and when that info proves false.