John Twomey: 'Some officers may just cease contact with you completely'
Requiring police officers to log all of their contact with the media risks having a "freezing effect" on police-press relations, the chair of the Crime Reporters Association has warned.
John Twomey, a crime reporter at the Daily Express since 1987, said officers could be too scared of talking to the media if recommendations in Elizabeth Filkin's report were taken up, for fear that their contact with the media might harm their chances of being promoted.
Twomey told the Leveson inquiry today: "Officers would be less likely to talk to you. They would give out less information to you. Some officers may just cease contact with you completely.
"The initial reaction would be to pull back, to err on the side of caution."
Filkin's report, commissioned by the Metropolitan Police Service stopped short of suggesting that officers be restricted from contact with the media, recommending instead that contact should be "permissible but not unconditional". The key condition is that officers are required to make a record of all contact with the press and that their records should be randomly and regularly audited by senior officers.
Last December, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) issued new guidelines about police officers accepting hospitality from the media. HMIC chief Sir Denis O'Connor told the Leveson inquiry that a common "framework of integrity" needed to be established in relation to interactions between the police and the media.
Lord Justice Leveson asked if the Crime Reporters Association, with just 47 members, could be considered "an elite group of reporters".
Twomey replied: "Some people could perceive it as an elite group. It's not a correct perception but I can see from the outside, particularly when crime reporters get exclusives, [others] might think it has come from CRA channels when it is in fact their own independent sources.
"I think that's something we'll have to live with, really. If reporters who mainly report on police matters want to join the CRA and they work for a national newspaper then they can probably join."
Free daily newsletter
If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).
