
Police Enterprise
Story Assignment
Your assignment is to
produce an enterprise crime story that focuses on one particular
community in Bucks County. One example would be to find some interesting statistics about
crime rates in a particular town or borough in the county, then
write a story about the problem that wraps in both the stats as well
as interviews with people who live in that community.
Here's
an example from The New York Times.
A good place
to start looking for stats is the
Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System web site. You can
get national stats from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports at
www.fbi.gov
BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS
PHILADELPHIA POLICE ONLINE
If the stats you find
on the Internet are somewhat out-of-date, talk to the local police
in that area to see if they have more recent numbers.
But remember, your
story should focus on one particular town, borough, and on just one
or two types of crime. For instance, you could write about the rate
of property crimes in Bristol Township, or about assaults in Croydon.
But to try to write about all violent crime in Bucks County is too
broad.
IMPORTANT! THIS STORY
MUST INCORPORATE BOTH STATISTICS AND INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE FROM THE
COMMUNITY - POLICE OFFICERS, RESIDENTS, BUSINESS OWNERS, ETC. JUST
HAVING STATS WITHOUT INTERVIEWS, OR VICE VERSA, WON'T BE ENOUGH.
This story should be 1,000 to
1,500 words long.
Many police
departments in Bucks County have web sites that can be reached at
www.buckscounty.org
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