PIO- Debbie Carter

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer, Debbie Carter made a presentation at our Public Affairs Reporting class Thursday evening. Carter handed out samples of crime reports, affidavits and a copy of the Florida public records statue.

Carter's presentation was informative and entertaining. Although her PowerPoint was broken, she threw out some jokes throughout to hold the class's attention.

Carter began by discussing her role at the sheriff’s office, which is to cooperate and assist media with events in Hillsborough County. She publishes about 500 press releases, conducts about 600 interviews, and has about 18,000 contacts with the media each year.

She continued discussing some history of public records and Florida Statute 119. Before 1974, law enforcement officials did not have to give public records to the media. Statute 119 is the public records statute; it states what a public record is. Anything that is public record can be accessed by anyone.

Police have the right and responsibility to protect evidence while following public record law. For example, when a case is still open and under investigation, they will release the time, place, and event that occurred. The name, address and sex of an adult arrested, or a juvenile booked with a felony will also be released to the media.

Some pieces of information not released by the sheriff’s office are: identity of a victim of a sex crime, child abuse or neglect; identity of a deceased person until next of kin has been notified; cause of death until determined by the medical examiner; evidential information; contents of a suicide note; and the monetary value of property/money taken in a robbery,

Carter is very knowledgeable about the media, because of her many years working so closely with members of the media.

Research Research

My Public Affairs Reporting class went to the library to learn how to research public records. I discovered a lot of resources I was unaware of, and how to access them. The USF Tampa library has a plethora of research tools and tangibles.

The government records librarian, Cheryl McCoy, created this great resource page specifically for JOU 4181, Public Affairs Reporting. All the links she put up, are very direct to where one may need to go, or will redirect the researcher/journalist if need be. I will be using Cheryl's "Course Guide" frequently until I can no longer access it.

Unfortunately, when it comes to searching the Pinellas County website, I was already familiar with it, and its public records search. However, I did learn that a helpful tool can be the Pinellas County Sherriff's Office website, in addition to the criminal courts records search available through the Pinellas County website.

I also love the Clendinen Virtual Library. I love that I can directly access the current edition of the local newspapers. The Times website is too hard to navigate through sometimes. I found reading/searching the newspaper through Clendinen is much less of a headache.

I learned that the "Sunshine Laws" translates to a government under the sun--almost everything government related is open to the public--it can't hide from the sun. I also learned to access public records through the Attorney General's office. I never would have thought to go there. I also learned that there are Vital Records accessible through the state website that will give birth, death, marriage licenses, etc.

It was an eye opening class. There are tons of resources available that I didn't know about or think about, and I'm sure there are even more that I will discover on my path as a journalist.