Trusting News recommends rethinking how the crime beat should be covered, to ensure your reporting leaves communities empowered and informed
Trusting News and the Maynard Institute have created a two-page guide with questions to ask yourself, and a sample set of eight 'mission metrics' for responsible crime coverage.
That includes putting crime reports in context - looking at causes, trends and systems as well as individual instances - and examining the version of events provided by police and law enforcement.
This conversation is particularly topical in the US, where both organisations are based and where many newsrooms are increasingly questioning omissions and biases in official police reports, for example in cases where police officers have shot unarmed Black civilians.
However the steps which the guide recommends, such as asking your community what their concerns about crime and policing are, and considering who is harmed or helped by your coverage of crime, will be useful reflection for news outlets in any location. Read the guide here.
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