As a police reporter for the Traverse City Record-Eagle, I learned how to report full-time on a daily basis, churning out about one to three stories per day in a newsroom. To do this, I worked with Traverse City Police Department and the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office. I developed relationships with them, learned what was going on in the department and attended daily news briefings where police logs were read and interviews were conducted. Many people said that these briefings were not necessary. And, while I do agree that it would be much easier to send everyone a press release, it was great to get up every morning, see faces and ask questions on the spot, which really saved me a phone call or two during the day if I did it right.

In the end, one of my biggest stories came out of briefing, on police finding a man who was burned alive’s, Terry Edick’s, next of kin, thanks to my article published on Sunday. It felt great to make a difference through my writing, because it was something I didn’t think I would accomplish. But, some articles came from tips, such as the story on Raymond Feagles’ blighted property, where 164 dogs were found. I got the call after work that day; and, I stayed and got the story for us that night, despite my parents coming into town to see me for dinner the same night. The story got published in The Associated Press, a first for me, as well as my subsequent follow-ups. And, while we officially FOIA-ed for all the subsequent documents related to the court case, I was grateful for the cooperation of Beth Friend, the township supervisor, who kept me abreast on the story city-wise until its close. There were two other stories that never officially aired that I would consider big stories for me, one being a murder case out of Benzie County and the other following up on an old 1980s fatal car crash case that eventually lead to a change in Michigan law. Both stories were pivotal, and I wish I could have seen them through to completion. I can only hope the next police reporter at the Record-Eagle will find my work and continue where I left off. And, on this note, I will also say I was working with both Benzie and Leelanau County police, including regularly working with Sheriff Michael Borkovich, to publish stories regarding crime in their areas also. One Leelanau County story was about a man who scaled a building to escape a fire, another about a bomb reported in Fish Town. I also want to say that we had a string of catalytic converters stolen off of vehicles, which I reported on while I was there. My reporting backs a New York Times article that appeared around the same time about the national trend on the theft of catalytic converters and how it’s a regular issue for police; because, it happened so often, we eventually kept a running tally on the number of converters stolen and published the update.

Other stories I worked on included traffic, weather and coronavirus stories. A major traffic story I wrote was published in December 2021 about which intersections in the Traverse City area were most fatal. I spoke to Adrienne Woodland at AAA about weather conditions on roads and compiled data with my colleague, Luca Powell, from the Grand Traverse 9-1-1 to determine which intersections were most fatal. A lot of people had opinions about which areas were most dangerous, but the data showed that it was actually an intersection on a divided highway that was number one. Regarding weather stories, the National Weather Service in Gaylord quickly became my best friend for these. I loved calling over there because they would always tell me to, “Give them a second. Let me check my crystal ball.” Then, they would come back and give me the weather report, saying the crystal ball only went out one week to ten days and to check back next week for updated information. Perhaps a favorite weather story of mine happened in March, after countless snow stories that winter. It started to be spring and I started calling around about people planting gardens and the weather thawing out. One woman gave me a dynamite of a quote for that story, about how March goes out like a lamb or lion but it really doesn’t thaw out in Traverse City until April; and, it made the story for me. Regarding coronavirus updates, I was regularly in touch with Munson Hospital in Traverse City, publishing data about their coronavirus response. I watched weekly online media briefings and talked to doctors and public relations staff, and I talked to local clinics and people on the street about what they thought of coronavirus. A big story I did on COVID-19 was about how restaurants in the area were handling the pandemic, especially since staff were catching the disease.

Here are some of the story clips I mentioned above, and you can find more on the Record-Eagle’s website (record-eagle.com):