WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — The Wisconsin Humanities Council and Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service hosted the first of five summer-long Beyond the Headlines discussions on media coverage of police incidents Thursday at Northcentral Technical College.
“I’m glad we had great turnout, we’ve been working with a lot of people to try to pull this together,” said Meg Turville-Heitz of the Wisconsin Humanities Council. “I like the fact that we had a really robust conversation going on the panel, and I’m hoping with the additional four segments that will happen people can actually get into there and really converse themselves and talk through the different concepts of what we are talking about.”
Serving on Thursday’s panel were former UW Madison Police Chief Sue Riseling, Marathon County Sheriff Scott Parks, and Wausau Police Chief Ben Bliven. Media members included WPR’s Glen Moberg, WSAW TV News Director Sara Gray, and San Antonio Express-News Editor Mike Leary. Kathleen Culver of the UW Madison Journalism program served as moderator.
Much of the discussion focused on the evolving relationship between law enforcement and the media. Moberg reflected on a time when he was working on a story in Chicago about firefighters who saved several people from a burning building. As he was trying to get the names of those involved to tell their stories, he was told by several people in the department that they had specific instructions to not talk with the media at all. Both Bliven and Parks called that policy outdated.
“I think what you see in this area is how fortunate we are that law enforcement and our local media work so well together. You [the media] may not always agree with us, and we may frustrate you at times but we can come together and work through our differences,” said Parks. He added that the ultimate goal is to get factual information out to the public so they know what’s taking place in the community.
Turville-Heitz was also happy with how both sides were able to admit that their relationship has evolved in recent years. “It’s nice to hear them sitting side-by-side and recognizing that there are problems in our society that we can really converse about. By doing that we are in a better position to be able to solve those problems.”
During the discussion Bliven also emphasized the importance of a good relationship between police and the public when it comes to solving crimes, saying if the public does not trust his officers they are less likely to come forward with what could be important information. He added that in the Wausau PD he takes a “hire for character, train for skill” approach to bringing in talent, hiring high-character individuals then training them to become officers.
Turville-Heitz said the idea for the conversations came out of a need to solve some of today’s problems regarding coverage of police-related incidents. “You have to have an informed citizenry if you are going to solve your problems. If you don’t have the information, if you don’t have the knowledge that’s necessary to make those kind of decisions, then how do you know who or what to trust?”
Similar discussion series are being held in Milwaukee, Superior, and Eau Claire. The next discussion in Wausau will be on June 13th and will feature Everest Metro Police Chief Clayton Schulz, Wausau Daily Harald Editor Robert Mentzer, & WAOW’s Melissa Langbehn. All three will present a case study of a recent event and discuss how it was presented to the public.
All Beyond the Headlines events in Wausau are free and will be held at NTC’s College Auditorium in the Health and Science Center.
