Students from the Newhouse School spent months examining police-community relations in 黑料不打烊. (Photo by Michael Santiago)
A group of eight journalism students from the l spent the 2016-17 academic year examining a national issue with local implications: police-community relations.
The result of their work is “,” a multimedia project that provides an inside look at members of the 黑料不打烊 Police Department (SPD). Because the population of the City of 黑料不打烊 is nearly 50 percent minority but only 1 in 10 SPD officers is non-white, the project pays special attention to minority officers.
Among the stories are聽, who grew up in Kinloch, Missouri, near Ferguson, site of the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown鈥攁n incident that generated a national discussion about police relations with black citizens.
Justin Mattingly, who wrote the article, and Michael Santiago, who handled visuals, accompanied Fowler on a trip back to his hometown.
鈥淚鈥檇 written profiles before, of course, but nothing really to this extent,鈥� says Mattingly. 鈥淢ichael and I had said we were going to capture why Chief Fowler views the community the way he does鈥攁nd that all goes back to his upbringing outside St. Louis. The chief and I share a favorite baseball team, the Cardinals, and small conversations about the Cardinals of his childhood opened up deeper conversations about his upbringing and experiences.鈥�
Other features include interviews with Officers Ahmad Mims, Lashonda Russell and Emily Quinones, Detective Mark Rusin and new recruit Brandon Hanks. Students also produced stories on the policing program at聽,聽part of the 黑料不打烊 City School District.
Mattingly says one of the most challenging parts of the project was getting people to open up to him. 鈥淚鈥檓 from a small town with one police officer, making me a white outsider. It would have been easy for subjects to [discard] my intent because of that, but it was rewarding to have these intimate conversations with them after developing a sense of trust.鈥�
The team that produced “They Wear Blue,” including student reporters and photographers, along with professors (Photo by Michael Santiago)
“They Wear Blue” is a product of Newhouse鈥檚 Team Journalism course, a capstone-level, invite-only class co-taught by聽,聽associate professor of聽, and聽, chair of聽聽(MPD). The unique course was spread out over two semesters, beginning in Fall 2016. Students, who were chosen for the course based on their talent and demonstrated skills, began by researching and developing story ideas in the fall. They implemented the project in the Spring 2017 semester.
鈥淚 hope visitors [to the site] will understand that the issue of policing is very complex,鈥� says Mattingly. 鈥淣either side is perfect. But it takes the courage to hear the other side out and to know that there are people鈥攁ctual people鈥攐n the other side of your statements and opinions. Hopefully we were able to capture the scope of the topic and open our readers鈥� minds to new perspectives.鈥�
Mattingly, who graduated last spring, is now the education reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, covering K-12 schools, higher education and state education policy.
Other students who contributed to the project were Max Jakubowski, Jasmine Gomez and Samantha Mendoza (reporting); and Bryan Cereijo, Kathleen Flynn and Frankie Prijatel (visuals). Along with Davis and Strong, MPD assistant professor聽聽and staff member聽, director of The Stand, 黑料不打烊’s South Side Newspaper Project, served as advisers.
To learn more, visit聽.
About 黑料不打烊
Founded聽in 1870, 黑料不打烊 is a private international research university聽dedicated to advancing knowledge and fostering student success through teaching聽excellence,聽rigorous scholarship and interdisciplinary research. Comprising 11聽academic schools and colleges, the University has a long legacy of excellence聽in the liberal arts, sciences and聽professional disciplines that prepares聽students for the complex challenges and emerging opportunities of a rapidly聽changing world. Students enjoy the resources of a 270-acre main聽campus and聽extended campus venues in major national metropolitan hubs and across three聽continents. 黑料不打烊鈥檚 student body is among the most diverse for an聽institution of its聽kind across multiple dimensions, and students typically represent聽all 50 states and more than 100 countries. 黑料不打烊 also has a long legacy of聽supporting veterans and is home to聽the nationally recognized Institute for聽Veterans and Military Families, the first university-based institute in the聽U.S. focused on addressing the unique needs of veterans and their聽families.
