J. D. Callaway

Tuesday’s field trip to the Hillsborough Country Sheriff’s Department was an informative and fascinating one. We were given information and shown the inner workings of many different areas of the Sheriff’s Department by Public Information Officer J.D. Callaway.
The trip started with a twenty minute lecture session with Callaway. I thought this part of the trip was huge for students in a class like this. The reason I say this is because Callaway made the statement that most of the stories and documents that young reporters deal with are crime-related. It was during this part of the lecture that Callaway explained the instances that a reporter can come to the Sheriff’s Department for records and when they need to go to the county courthouse. Probably the most interesting part of the lecture to me was when Callaway talked about search warrants. He stressed the importance of search warrants for young reporters, describing them as “incredibly valuable.” Callaway said that search warrants are available for someone to observe ten days after they are issued out. I thought this fact was huge, because I imagine that the information found on some of these search warrants is essential to writing a great report.
Callaway also discussed how the transition to digital media has affected the way reporters get their information. In the examples Callaway provided, it seemed like reporters are putting the importance of timeliness above that of accuracy. He said that reporters will get information by what is being said over the air on police scanners and report it. Although this might make for instantaneous news and incredible timeliness, it is not always accurate according to Callaway. What all this means for Callaway is that he must try to be as timely as these reporters that are working with this information while being 100 percent accurate at the same time.