Let’s say one day I go missing and attract media attention. Then a week or so later, two hikers find my body in the woods, attracting more media attention. The medical examiner concludes that I died natuarlly of a heart attack. Are the police (or anyone else) required to inform the media? Would they inform the media?
Nope. The cops aren’t and we (the medical examiner) aren’t. We are members of local government, cops city or county, ME county or state; the media are part of private enterprise; govt has no obligation to help business to carry on its profitmaking functions.
However. The death certificate is public record (at least in my state - laws may vary). The moment your death certificate is filed, the media are gonna jump all over it. They’ll be on the phone to us quicker’n you can say “speed dial”.
However however. What cops usually do is try to maintain some form of cordial relations with the media. So when the body was found in the woods, they would inform the media. They wouldn’t say “We found Copperwindow!” because it’s been a week. They’d say “We found a body in the woods that’s decomposing, and the ME is going to try to identify it using dental records.” The media would naturaly wonder “Could this be Copperwindow?” and the answer would depend on whether you had ID on you. Answer varies from “Believed to be Copperwindow, let’s let the docs prove it” through “No ID, but wearing clothes similar to those Copperwindow was last seen in, and has same tattoos and wedding band” to “No idea, let’s see what the dentals show”.
Then the media would hang round (not literally, they can’t stand the smell of decomposing bodies) and ask irritatingly every eight hours, “Is it Copperwindow? Do you know the cause of death yet? Any foul play?”
The media also knows where your family is, and interviews them regularly even if all they get is a “Calls were not returned”, to find out if the police have yet come by to inform them: “We’re sorry, ma’am, sir, but that body found in the woods was Copperwindow”.
So the media has their ways of finding out even if we are under no obligation to inform, and the cops work closely with the media in most places to make sure they know, or, occasionally, don’t know.
Our ME office never phones the media. Never. We play our cards close to the vest. However, they phone us daily. We have an amazing self-trained media-handling expert who has the most pleasant way of saying No that I’ve ever heard. It’s basically “Fuck off” put so nicely the media rep gets off the phone feeling like friends. We never release anything more than cause and manner of death even when we do say something, and we only release those if the police have said we can. (For instance, in a horrible homicide, if only the killer [and I] knows how the victim died, the police may ask us not to release the death certifcate to the news while they interview suspects.)
Sometimes our self-created media expert takes a day off, and then there’s nothing like the dropping swirling feeling you get in your stomach when up front rings your desk: “Dr. Gabriela, channel 10 news is on the phone for you.”
Well Doc, I guess I can empathize. I probably wouldn’t want some reporter knocking on my door, especially if they were accompanied by a videographer, but I do want them to be all over public officials, especially the police and politicians, if they have even a hint of a story. Sure, there are a lot of ho-hum stories in the media every day, but I find it really troubling when the local newscast is filled w/ national stories, the same stories I’m going to get from the network broadcasts, when I’m certain that there are local stories being overlooked. There are very few circumstances when gov’t. should be keeping secrets, but I believe it’s the natural tendency for public officials to avoid the press unless they see some advantage in talking to them.
The essence of the SDMB.
Authorative, helpful, witty, well-written. 
Carry on.
Yeah, you got a point. I check my local news all the time to see who’s been not-quite-killed. (We had an idea we should start a Medical Examiner branch of Hallmark cards: “The Medical Examiner offers condolences on your recent assault, and wants to assure you of their sincere wishes for your complete recovery.”)
However. What the news wants from us is not the mere facts (“Cause of death: heart attack”) but the dirty nitty-gritty. Who was Copperwindow sleeping with, what drugs were they doing, why were they out in the woods to begin with? Was Copperwindow’s heart dicky to begin with, or was it the sight of a raving ex with a shotgun that caused that fatal arrhythmia? Was there anything like full frontal nudity at any point? How about blood? Blood is always good. If it bleeds, it leads.
I sympathize with the desire for these details, because I am human and they are interesting; in fact, they make a great story. They’re at least part of the fun of having my job. However, the news wants them not because they are human and interesting, but because they bring in money.
And the patient and family have rights to privacy which really get in the way of the news media’s making money.
That’s where the big conflict is. I got no problem calling a death in police custody a homicide right to the media if I think it was one. Where I stop is the nitty gritty. Which is just where they don’t want me to stop. So the swirling feeling in my stomach isn’t because I think I am going to be in trouble. It’s because of the fencing match about to begin.
I’m only an average fencer, and I’m fencing for the secrets of another person. The dead person. The family of the dead person.
If it was your family, you’d appreciate my less than full disclosure. How much less than full? Therein lies the rub. There are lines, and the conflict runs along those lines. The state code says the next of kin can have the autopsy report, and so can the treating physician; never said nothing about no Channel 10. I am allowed by law to release cause and manner of death, and that’s what I release, and after that my lips are sealed. You may never know why they are. Is it sex or is it a weird method of strangling someone? I’m not saying.
Oh, and the next of kin can take that autopsy report and go straight to Channel 10 if they want to. Nothing stopping them. It’s their privacy. If they choose to breach it in the hope of justice through publicity, then God bless 'em. It’s not my right to take that prerogative to myself though.
My old boss once told us he had called a death in police custody a homicide, and the next day he had two very angry detectives sitting in his office explaining to him why he had to change that to accident right now. At the same time, Al Sharpton was standing on his front steps with a megaphone, yelling to the crowd: “Don’t call it homicide! Call it murder!” His motto: If the Medical Examiner is doing his (or her) job right, eventually he pisses off everyone.
Including you, if only to the mildlest extent, if I don’t wanna release details you wish the media would be all over. That’s okay with me. You can be pissed off. Ant’s worth of pissoff. Not even fire ant. Citizens like you help make sure the cops don’t get away with shit they shouldn’t.
Awwwww.
How will the media know when the death certificate is filed?
Why?
Note that reporters have their sources in the PD also. Used to be a reporter even sat around Police HQ. (When I was working for the LA Herald, many years ago)
The keep an eye on things like that. It’s their job.
The local media uses police scanners also. If something newsworthy happens we usually get a call before the event is even over. When the facts are in a news release is written and thats what is given to the press. If the event is big enough there is a new conference. It is public information (except for the parts that aren’t, by law) so while there is no obligation to give out the information before it is asked for, it is also not good policy to look like you are hiding information.
Thanks, Telemark.
The death certificate is a public document filed in vital records, and all they have to do is call Vital Records and ask if they have it. If Vital Records says yes, then they ask for it. If it hasn’t been filed yet (likely because we haven’t yet proved who the dead body is), then either they can nag Vital Records every 8 hours the way they do me, or they can have a friendly person (if they can find one!) who works there, tell them when the death certificate gets filed. Comes out about the same either way.
They can also call the funeral home - funeral homes are the ones who do the filing of the death certificate; they don’t have the same state laws applying to them that apply to me, since they aren’t govt, but private business; and many funeral homes have a finger in the political pie, and are happy to leak small bits of news in exchange for news favors later.
Or they can ask the cops themselves.
For the more mundane stories (ones they don’t pick up on using other methods) reporters come in at least once a week and look over the incident reports. Of course they are scrubbed for personal information, confidential ongoing investigations and other things that are not to be released. This is were all the information comes from in your local paper if it has a “police blotter” feature. A reported would find out pretty quick that a body had been found. It would be easier and better PR to just put out a press release at the time of the incident since it already had media attention.
Any cops want to take a crack at this?
Because they need the media sometimes?
Because, as someone quoted beautifully a week ago and I’ve forgotten who and where, it’s not smart to get into a fight with people who buy ink by the gallon?
Because they believe that the public will be better off if they know?
And thanks, Loach. What do you do exactly? I can tell it’s journalism, but I don’t know what subspecialty, so to speak.
And Telemark, forgive me for forgetting to bold your name. Copperwindow, the same. I suck at that - I’m always remembering to hit Bold just after I hit Post :smack: . I obviously made more of an effort with this post.
I’m a police officer.
Whoa. Make me look dumb. Hi, Officer. Homicide, robbery, sexual assault, special victims?
(make you look dumb - payback) Auto squad?
Just regular patrol. So I have dealt with all of the above.
excellent as always!
Gabriela rocks!
Thanks
Seconded!