| Chapter 3
Reporting
on Drug Law Enforcement
and Controlled Substances
By
Bill Wallace
Identifying
Potential Contacts
Like most reporting on the criminal justice system, the key to good
coverage of drug enforcement operations lies in developing a network
of useful sources. Some materials that can be used to generate stories
on the subject are documentary, and can be found in your local courthouse
or in other repositories of public records. But the quickest and
most efficient way to develop a drug enforcement story on deadline
is simply to have somebody tell you about it – and for that
you generally need human sources.
Finding sources on dangerous drugs in the criminal justice system
can require a good deal of effort, but it is not a very complicated
task. Start out by reading your own news organization's files on
local drug control problems, major arrests and prosecutions; or,
if you work at a television or radio outlet, skim a couple of months
worth of local papers online or at your public library for stories
about these subjects.
Your research need not be exhaustive, but keep an eye open for
the names of law enforcement officials and prosecutors who are quoted
in the stories or who figure in them prominently. Usually a little
research of this type will yield a list of people that can be very
helpful.
It can also help you come up with some questions for the people
you hope to develop as sources. For example, you may want to ask
what types of controlled substances are being seized in your local
community, whether most drug arrests are made by patrol units or
undercover officers, and if local agencies target large scale dealers
and sales networks or concentrate on small-scale dealers who sell
relatively small amounts of drugs.
Once you have developed a general familiarity with the beat area
and local coverage, start tracking down the people you need to interview
to fill in the details. Those who will be most able to give you
accurate information about local drug enforcement efforts will be
the members of the agencies in the trenches: your local police or
sheriff's narcotics division, drug investigators from the state
police or state attorney general's office, regional agents from
multi-agency task forces, agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration or the FBI. You will also want to talk to the people
who take the cases prepared by these investigators to court, including
drug prosecutors in your county district attorney's office who appear
in the state court system and their counterparts who work for the
local U.S. Attorney and handle cases in U.S. District or U.S. circuit
courts of appeals.
Cultivating
Your Sources
If you are going to be involved in a beat that will involve a large
amount of drug enforcement coverage, set up an interview or general
briefing by the directors of these agencies or their designated
press spokesperson at your local level. Check government directories,
websites and phone lists to learn the organization of local drug
enforcement bureaucracies and get the names and numbers of key people
who work in them.
Take would-be sources to lunch if your organization's budget and
your expense account will allow it. Ask your local law enforcement
agencies to let you go on ride-alongs with patrol units. Find out
when potential sources are going to be appearing in court and seek
them out in the hallway during recesses or when court has adjourned
for the day. Look for them in the coffee shop or local bar that
cops frequent and strike up a conversation with them.
Be relentless but friendly and open in your effort to talk to the
people you hope to win as sources. Your determination may impress
and win over your would-be informants – and even if it doesn't,
they may decide it isn't worth the effort to avoid talking to you.
Ask them what their agencies' enforcement priorities are and find
out about any specialized drug control problems they face. Start
out by asking them general questions about their agency –
staffing and annual budget, jurisdiction, number of investigations
a year, number of prosecutions and convictions, major challenges.
For local investigative agencies, ask whether they belong to any
regional task forces work with other state, federal or local agencies
in cooperative or joint investigations.
If your efforts are successful, you will not only develop a useful
relationship with them, but you will also acquire a great deal of
background information that can later be used to flesh out feature
stories about local fronts in the drug war.
Think Outside
the Box
Don't limit your outreach to law enforcement personnel. Talk to
your state and local legislators or their aides to find out what
they know about local drug enforcement problems. Elected representatives
often have back channels to well-placed sources in law enforcement,
and some have their own experts in drug policies and law enforcement
on their staff.
They may be able to point you to other sources, or directly provide
you with information they have developed in connection with their
legislative efforts. At best you may be tipped to a drug enforcement
problem that is just developing or advanced notice of pending or
potential legislation that could significantly change local, state
or federal drug control laws. At worst, you will turn up the names
of some new potential sources.
You should also contact the local criminal defense bar and find
out who represents alleged drug law violators in local, state and
federal courts. Seek them out and find out what they know about
the local drug situation. Although lawyers will rarely discuss their
own clients, many criminal defense specialists will be willing to
give you background about local drug activities and the law enforcement
agencies that investigate them.
Visit your local drug treatment programs and talk to the administrators.
They often serve as a buffer between the victims of drug abuse and
law enforcement agencies and prosecutors. They have a unique perspective
on drug abuse problems and access to people on both sides of the
war.
Finally, do not be afraid to approach those who have been arrested
for drug offenses, are in recovery or use or sell drugs. Many will
be unwilling to talk to you, and most of what they do tell you will
have to be weighed carefully before it can be used. But nobody else
you talk to is more likely to know the drug world better than those
who are or have been part of it. And many of them have stories to
tell that your readers or viewers would find fascinating.
Continue to the next
page in "Chapter 3: Reporting on Drug Law Enforcement"
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