Field Trip: Hillsborough County Jail

"Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do whatcha gonna do? When they come for you?"
--Bob Marley

On Tuesday my class visited the Hillsborough County Jail. Upon entering the jail we were told to not bring anything that could be considered a weapon into the point of no return. We all emptied our keys and left behind our cell phones to begin the tour of the jail. I found it curious that the officers just took our word that no one was carrying anything that could be considered dangerous and let us all pass by the metal detector that was in front of the door that we entered.

The control room seemed very advanced and the camera footage was cycling through on multiple televisions. This is when I first realized that most of that footage could be available as public records. I asked the officer if there had been any escapes at the prison. Expecting a definite NO! I was surprised to find that two people had escaped the facility but were eventually recaptured. Everyone seemed stunned when viewing a prisoner up close. I had much sympathy for the girls in my class because I can't imagine how being the "eye candy" to these people must have felt.

After viewing the pods and areas where the prisoners mingle convinced me that I never want to be in jail/prison ever! The small room would drive me insane, that's why it wasn't surprising to hear that some of the inmates had done some pretty graphic things to themselves. I now know why all camera footage of jails and prisons have no sound. The echo in any room in the facility would cause so much noise to bounce back and forth that you would not be able to understand anything. I can't even begin to imagine a day for the prisoners or the officers in that room for the "crazies." There was literally a small entry at the foot of the door to feed the inmates because some of them were so bad they weren’t even let out but maybe an hour a day or less.

Booking was our last stop where we viewed all of the people who had been arrested within 24 hours. We were told to be silent as we walked past the obvious stare downs from the new inmates. Before we left we were lectured on what information we were able to collect from the prison (the only things unavailable were social security numbers and witness names). Overall, very educating and the experience motivated me to be a perfect law abiding citizen.

Field Trip: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office

On Tuesday my public affairs class took a field trip to Ybor and visited the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to get a better understanding of public records. I learned that if you need public record within the Hillsborough County area, we as public citizens can request files any time at the sheriff’s office, jail and courthouse; however not everything is considered a public record. We were given a very useful and very descriptive pamphlet on the standard operating procedures describing news releases and media cooperation. Section six of this pamphlet specifically lists what may be released unless it falls into the 10 listing examples. Personally this pamphlet is a must-keep-item so we, as mass communications majors, can legally understand what can and cannot be released. Mrs. Nunez and Mr. Callaway (spelled like the golf club) provided my class with copies of affidavit reports, copies of examples of arrests that were recent and up to date, and copies of arrest warrant documents to see first hand what these documents look like. Nunez and Callaway also offered my class advice to help us become better journalists and to get a clear understanding how to communicate well with the sheriff’s office.

We were all allowed to watch 9-1-1 operators doing there job and learned some interesting facts about the job. I thought it was very interesting that they can trace your location accurately within 300 meters when you place your 9-1-1 call. The most stunning fact was how long each of these individuals trains for their jobs: a little over a year. As Travis mentioned in class, our carpool discussed on the way home how mental that job has to be. Imagine getting a 9-1-1 call and have to calm down a mother who lost a child or even explain to a confused child why her mother or father won’t wake up. Even though none of these events are the operator’s faults, going to sleep after receiving over one million calls in a year must be terrifying.

Guest Speaker: Matt Doig

On Tuesday September 7 my public affairs class got a visit from an investigative reporter from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Matt Doig. From the beginning, Doig offered some basic examples and advice to my entire class how to benefit from public records as journalists. With the mass amount of public records available to the community it can sometimes be difficult to organize paper databases in correct order. Without the technology we have today, it would take months or even years to discover any of the interesting facts in public records. Doig offered a lot of advice to my classmates on how to utilize databases for journalists. He first demonstrated a database in public records of every teacher in the state of Florida. That’s over 100,000 teachers! The database included such information like where they work, their social security numbers, and even their test scores to become teachers (which was not easy to obtain). He told us how he and some other colleague’s uncovered teachers who received low test grades that were placed at poorer schools than those who scored higher than them.


After providing us this example, Doig reiterated that everyone needs to learn how to use Excel or Access to make databases easier to do, “Databases can end a debate and give definitive answers.” Another fun fact I learned from this lecture is that Florida is the number one state for housing fraud in the United States. Even with the real estate market the way it was when the economy crashed, I never once suspected that Florida would be at the top of the list. Doig told us a story when he and his colleagues discovered, through public records, a way to catch some of these frauds. Through a database, they limited a search to 55,000 people who had sold a house twice within 90 days. From there they had to dig deeper to uncover the criminals who were abusing the system.

Guest Speaker: Tim Nickens

I didn’t realize how difficult it is to get information like what we get here in Florida then in many other states. We are very fortunate here in Florida; Tallahassee is well trained as an open government; however, Tallahassee can be frustrating at the local level. A local government such as a city hall is where you run into problems with open government. They may not be comfortable or not know the laws very well. Also, most of the staff are traditionalists with certain morals. There is a lot of information that I was unaware of that is made available to the public. I was surprised that you can get voting records, driver’s licenses, or even what you sold your house for and what it’s actually worth. Public records are your “toolbox” in all aspects of journalism for making a good story. I now understand the process of networking with sources. Keeping and knowing good sources may lead you to where you need too look in public records. Just because its public doesn’t mean it’s going to be right there in front of you. Your sources can assist you by pointing you in the right direction. Also, its helps the more you know about a document because its likely the source will be willing to help you “look under that rock” and point you in the right direction. Even though I’ve never had a problem with it, it’s important to never be afraid to ask questions. By doing this you will be able to read and understand what you are looking for. I found the story of the supposed college building that was actually an airport hanger to be an inspiring, hardworking, journalistic story. I believe that those in power who abuse the system need to be put in check regularly by the media.