Who Owns the Crime Narrative?

Welcome back!

For those of you who need a reminder, The Public Safety Beat is where I use my experience as a criminal justice reporter to add nuance and depth to the national conversation around violence, policing, and public safety.

Apologies for the break being longer than intended. It was a mix of vacations and work that pushed this back a little.

I’m using this as an opportunity to reintroduce the page and share a new posting schedule.

Here’s what you can expect going forward:

Free subscribers

• Weekly Question of the Week or Reporter’s Notebook

• Occasional bonus posts

Paid subscribers

• One exclusive in-depth post each month

• Everything in the free tier

Going forward, I will continue publishing every week, but I’ll alternate between a Question of the Week (like this post) and a Reporter’s Notebook. The Question of the Week will take a criminal justice or public safety issue in the news, offer some context and analysis, and end with a question for readers to ponder.

The Reporter’s Notebook will take readers behind my reporting, whether that’s historical context, an issue I’ve been thinking about, or something I learned while covering public safety that week. I’ll also share some of the reporting hurdles and wins along the way.

Additionally, I’m going to start publishing one in-depth post each month that will be exclusively for paid subscribers. These will range from reported essays to opinion pieces on topics such as police reform rollbacks, dismantling stereotypical narratives about violence, and criminal justice angles the media isn’t covering. There might even be a long-form feature or two in the mix. The first one drops next week. If you’d like to support this work directly, becoming a paid subscriber is the best way to do it.

Finally, in a few months, I’ll begin sharing more from my forthcoming book on elite police units. This will include reporting stories, deleted materials, details on the writing process, launch updates, and more! I can’t wait to reveal the finalized title and cover.

If you’re new to The Public Safety Beat, here are a few stories to get you started:

COVID & crime 5 years later — An analysis of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on crime in America.

A deep dive into elite police units — Announcing the subject of my forthcoming book.

How the tough-on-crime narrative was rebranded for immigration — Investigating how the media helped justify excessive immigration enforcement by using the same playbook they used in the 90s against the Black community.

Thanks for sticking with me as I continue refining this newsletter. I really appreciate everyone who has supported my work here.

With that, here’s this week’s question!

The midterms are around the corner, and it’s one of the only times the country gets a broad snapshot of how people feel about policy issues. How accurate that snapshot is will always be up for debate, but it’s still a chance to take the public’s temperature.

The Pew Research Center recently put out a report on how Americans view each political party on key issues. One of those issues is crime policy. According to the report, 43 percent of the public agrees with how the Republican Party addresses crime. Just 29 percent agree with the Democratic Party, and 25 percent are neutral.

Out of all the issues listed, crime policy is the one where Republicans have the strongest support.

This isn’t all that surprising to me. I believe there aren’t many other issues the general public understands less than criminal justice. Maybe it’s because I’m so immersed in it. I’m sure experts in other fields feel the same way.

To me, this chart isn’t a reflection of public ignorance. I’m putting the onus on myself and my colleagues in the media. We’ve failed to accurately cover public safety, crime, and law enforcement if people still believe the Republican playbook is the correct approach to handling the problem.

I’m not saying the Democrats have all the answers either, but if the public is leaning so far in this direction, it raises the question of whether we’re failing to inform them.

So here’s my question:

How can the media do a better job of informing the public on criminal justice issues?