Chris Davis Visit

On Tuesday, Chris Davis from the Sarasota Herald Tribune came by my class to talk about some of his investigative reports that he accomplished with the help of public records.

I was very impressed by Chris and all the work he has accomplished. The most interesting thing I found to be was all of the information Chris had gathered in order to make his render of the 1950's murder of a Sarasota family. Chris explained that since the murder case was so old, he and his colleges had to rely on public records to report his findings. Although their ultimate goal was to find the person who brutally murdered this family, they ended up using the information from the police records to render the crime scene. From finding where certain fingerprints were located, to finding how and exactly where a hat had fallen off a head to land 3 feet from a door. Public records break down crime scenes so that the media and journalists can make a picture for viewers and readers.

Another thing I found to be very interesting was the work that Chris and his co-workers researched for his story on teacher abuse. He explained to us that it took years to gather all of the information about every public school teachers and the incidences that occurred whether it be sexual abuse, or a drug and alcohol related incident. It amazes me that they were able to created this amazing databases for people to search and see who is teaching their students. All of this is thanks to public records that Chris said was just stored in a warehouse somewhere.

Overall, I very much enjoyed Chris's visit. To be honest I never knew that journalists would go to such great lengths to show the public a side they have never seen. To have such patience to wait for all of these public records to be sorted in a way that they can use them is amazing. I have to say kudos to Chris and the investigative reporting staff at the Sarasota Herald Tribune. I have already saved their website to my favorites and plan on watching them in the future to see what they can uncover next!!