INFORMING READERS OR ENDANGERING OFFICERS?

There is a natural tension when reporting about what tricks law
enforcement has in store for suspects.

On one hand, journalists don't want to pull punches unnecessarily. We
don't want government or police sources to dictate the terms of a
story. We work for newspapers, after all, not for the government.

But journalists are citizens, too. And we wouldn't want to include
information that would compromise an investigation or place an officer
unnecessarily in harm's way.

Today's front-page look at the newest police tricks of the trade
wasn't a particularly hard call. It was a natural story for Arizona
readers: a look at a national program that is based in the state, at
Fort Huachuca.

Reporting the story, of course, meant describing the newfangled
gadgets so that readers could form their own opinions about the program.

As it turned out, the information I obtained about the devices from
the Office of National Drug Control Policy was already in the public
domain. It might not be readily available - some of it is in an
obscure government catalog - but it is there for those willing to look
for it.

Francis X. Kinney, a chief strategist in the drug-control office,
didn't try to place any restrictions on the story.

In one case, a federal contractor working with Kinney's office asked
us not to delve into details of how one particular system operates, so
criminals wouldn't be alerted. It turned out not to be an issue
because the information wasn't important to the story.

Kinney said he believes today's article will inform readers without
telling drug smugglers anything they don't already know.

"Maybe it makes for easy desktop research by bad guys," he said. "But
I think you've got to assume that the people that are out there are
crafty, well-informed opponents with incredible resources at their
fingertips."