I know Mr. Calloway had to kill a lot of trees in order to pass out his handouts to us, but I am glad he did! Every single packet he gave us was very helpful and provided us with a lot of information. My favorite packet he gave us was the "Standard Operating Procedure" packet. I know for sure that I will hold on to this packet for future reference. I love how it shows which information the police is allowed to give the reporters during certain situations and how they can obtain the information.
Besides all of the information gathered from the packets, Mr. Calloway was able to share some wealthy information. I was very surprised to find out that police departments are allowed to put a hold on traffic accident records for 6 months after the accident has occured. The reason why they do this is to keep "ambulance chasers" from pursuing clients who need representation. This surprised me very much because it shows me that police really are protecting the public not just from harmful sitations, but afterwards from nasty situations that can occur afterward.
I was also surpised to find out that police officers and fireman are exempt from having personal information on public records.
I was also very happy that we got to see where we need to go to pick up public records from the sheriffs office. Of course we can just go online and search for ourselves, but in order to obtain the in depth information we may need as journalists, we needed to know exactly where to go.
Overall I really enjoyed the information we were able to gather from this field trip. Mr. Calloway and his assistant did a great job preparing for us, and I really learned a lot. I did some researching on the Hillsborough County Sheriff's website and found this link that may help some students and others if they have forgotten anything they need to know to obtain a public record.
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