J.D. Callaway Hillsborough County Sheriff Spokesman

USF’s Public Affairs Reporting class met at the Hillsborough County Sheriff Department September 16, 2008. The class was escorted to an empty room with chairs surrounding a table, and at the head of the table sat J.D. Callaway. Each classmate took their seats to give Callaway our undivided attention.

University of South Florida 1983 Graduate, J. D. Callaway, has worked for the Hillsborough County Sheriff Department for four years as the Sheriff’s spokesman. Callaway presented a criminal report affidavit, incident report, news release and an individual’s charge report to each classmate.

During Callaway’s presentation, he proceeded to explain that an estimated 30 percent of all reports/tips that come through their office are dispatched over the radio, and the other 70 percent is put into computer documents.

With the demand for online news reports increasing, and competition getting stronger with who presents the news first; many news stations are putting inaccurate information on the web. Most news stations have a police radio on at all times, and as soon as a “good story” is announced over the radios each news station presents the story via internet. As Callaway stated, “some radio calls are to check out a house situation with an assumption that a dead body is inside.” He continued to state that those calls can be inaccurate, and may turn out to be a dead dog rather than a person. He said that the news stations will put the story online that there is a dead body in a house before the story is proven, and that’s when online news stories may be incorrect. He mentioned that is was just an example, but there are many other incidences that occur.

One interesting fact that Callaway provided was that search warrants are not provided as public records through the Sheriff Department, but they can be retrieved at the Court House. A search warrant is a court order issued by a judge so that law enforcement is authorized to conduct a search of a person/location for evidence that can contribute to an investigation. The evidence may be seized for further investigation. Callaway stated that good stories can be presented when reporters obtain search warrants from the Court House.

Many reporters make mistakes, including J.D. Callaway himself. (Attached is a link to a story where Callaway admits giving wrong information about rape case.)
http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=631e479c-db36-40dd-8e4b-766a5a88e905