Vigo County Sheriff's Office

325.4 PROVIDING ADVANCE INFORMATION

To protect the safety and rights of Sheriff's office members and other persons, advance information about planned actions by law enforcement personnel, such as movement of persons in custody or the execution of an arrest or search warrant, should not be disclosed to the media, nor should media representatives be invited to be present at such actions except with the prior approval of the Sheriff.

Any exceptions to the above should only be considered for the furtherance of legitimate law enforcement purposes. Prior to approving any exception, the Sheriff will consider, at a minimum, whether the release of information or the presence of the media would unreasonably endanger any individual or prejudice the rights of any person or is otherwise prohibited by law.

325.5 MEDIA REQUESTS

Any media request for information or access to a law enforcement incident shall be referred to the Patrol Commander, Sheriff, or if unavailable, to the first available supervisor. Prior to releasing any information to the media, members shall consider the following:

1. (a)
   At no time shall any member of this Sheriff's office make any comment or release any official information to the media without prior approval from a supervisor or the Sheriff.
2. (b)
   In situations involving multiple agencies or government departments, every reasonable effort should be made to coordinate media releases with the authorized representative of each involved agency prior to the release of any information by this Sheriff's office.
3. (c)
   Under no circumstance should any member of this Sheriff's office make any comment to the media regarding any law enforcement incident not involving this Sheriff's office without prior approval of a supervisor or the Sheriff. Under these circumstances the member should direct the media to the agency handling the incident.

325.6 ACCESS

Authorized media representatives shall be provided access to scenes of disasters, criminal investigations, emergencies and other law enforcement activities as required by law.

Access by the media is subject to the following conditions:

1. (a)
   The media representative shall produce valid media credentials that shall be prominently displayed at all times while in areas otherwise closed to the public.
2. (b)
   Media representatives should be prevented from interfering and may be removed for interfering with emergency operations and criminal investigations.

   1. 1.
      Based upon available resources, reasonable effort should be made to provide a safe staging area for the media that is near the incident and that will not interfere