Ashley Lopez reports:
The Tallahassee Police Department recently released hundreds of police reports involving Florida State University athletes—as well as the personal information of the reporter who requested the records.
On Christmas Eve, according to Poynter, the non-profit journalism education center, TPD publicly released ESPN reporter Paula Lavigne’s original request – which included her cell phone number—along with the records she requested. The records, Poynter reported, are part of “an apparent investigation of the police department’s treatment of the athletes.” The police department released the records indiscriminately, and not solely to the reporter making the request, Lavigne, which is unusual. The sports journalism website Deadspin.com wrote that when police released the records request publicly, they were “essentially tipping off everyone to what she’s working on. ”
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