Here's an email request I recently received and my reply:

Mr. (Deleted):

Thank you for your note. Our policy at the newspaper is to disclose race whenever it is part of a substantive description of the person being sought. As a practical matter, this means race plus two other factors, such as approximate age, height and weight. We do not print race when it is the only known factor other than gender.

In other words, we would not print that the alleged criminal was a "white female" (in the Chattahoochee Valley, that description merely narrows the hunt from more than 150,000 women to still more than 80,000 women). On the other hand, if the police are looking for a "white woman, about 5-foot-six and 125 pounds," we would (and do) print this information.

There is one exception to this rule, which serves to get more descriptions into the newspaper. That is this: if the suspect has an "immutable" or unchangeable characteristic such as a visible scar or a tattoo, we print the description, even if we have no other meaningful information beyond race.

Thank you for your concerns about our reporting standards.

Best regards, Ben



From: (Name Deleted)
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 7:57 AM
To: Canepa, Valerie - Columbus
Subject: police news


I would like to know why Sara Pauff does not include a better description of the thugs who are mentioned in the local police section today. Gunman, partner invade apartment, and clerk struggles with armed robber! In both cases descriptions are given outside of race. It would be nice to know if we are in danger of these folks and they are white, black, or Hispanic. How are we to look for them and describe them if we don't know there race! Please do a better job at editing your folks, thank you for your time.