Over the past two weeks, Indianapolis news outlets have offered extensive coverage of the death of Beech Grove police officer Brian Elliott. The 33-year-old was fatally shot Monday, Feb. 16, while responding to a domestic disturbance. Another officer was also injured, and Kenneth Johnson, 47, was indicted on several charges including murder and attempted murder.
While there were a large volume of stories, notable questions remained unanswered, including: Where did the gun come from? Were the officers wearing body armor? What is the Beech Grove Police Department doing to review the incident?
We can expect a lot of coverage when an officer dies in the line of duty. But that coverage should offer the public a clear understanding of what happened and what can be done to prevent a similar tragedy in the future.
As I asked around, Indy residents told me the coverage was hard to miss. Even residents who didn’t see the stories in their news feeds became aware of the tragedy when “End of Watch” billboards saluting Elliott’s service arose on Keystone Avenue in Indy and as far away as Mooresville.
An Indianapolis resident of 35 years emailed on Feb. 25: Just generally I think local coverage of the police is far too adulatory. As urban police departments go, I don’t think IPD is terrible, but the coverage often seems to be “they can do no wrong.” It is of course a tragedy when an officer is killed, but it’s a tragedy when anyone is killed and the larger gun violence issue is often ignored.
Mat Davis spoke to me on Feb. 24: In comparison to the last high profile police shooting in Indianapolis (Breann Leath) this coverage seems excessive. I never want anyone to be killed on their job regardless of where they work but I also fear how this particular case could be blown out of proportion due to our political climate and history.
This feedback suggests that news consumers perceive that something is missing from local coverage. And I would agree.
Examining all the stories
With the help of my colleagues, I assembled a database of all the news stories we could find. Our spreadsheet of news coverage from February 16 to 23 includes stories from WTHR, IndyStar, FOX59, WRTV, WISH-TV and WFYI. Looking at the stories holistically, as well as outlet-by-outlet, I could see that most newsrooms followed a similar formula:
The early stories started with the breaking news that an officer had been shot, and they quickly followed with the update that he had died and that a suspect had been arrested.
Almost every newsroom followed up with stories that humanized Elliott and helped people remember him.
Many newsrooms also focused on the community response, interviewing co-workers, a former teacher, and peers. News stories documented Beech Grove residents sharing their sadness and respect for the slain officer while they dropped off tributes, flowers and messages at a large memorial at the Beech Grove Police Station next to his cruiser. Stories also showed community members sharing their remembrances at a candlelight vigil and at the local high school during the visitation.
The largest volume of stories were those that documented the community’s grief and the ceremonial moments honoring a fallen police officer. These include the processions from the hospital to the coroner, to the funeral home and eventually to the gravesite. Through news reports, the audiences learned the symbolism behind such details as the black band on police badges, the “10-42 end-of-watch call,” the riderless horse, the red dot on white carnations laid on the casket by police officers and their spouses during the “final file” at the burial.
The funeral itself received a significant amount of coverage, including live television coverage on several stations.
I expected to see more coverage about what actually happened during the police call that resulted in the officer’s death. The IndyStar and WTHR had the most details about the incident itself, drawing information from court documents. WTHR was the only outlet to do a story on the fact that domestic disturbances are the most dangerous police calls.
Newsroom leaders discuss their approach
When a police officer is shot in the line of duty, it’s a big story. Newsrooms spring into action with a list of key moments they know they must cover to answer the public’s questions about what happened, including whether a suspect was arrested and if there is any ongoing danger to the public. After that, journalists make choices about what story angles they pursue.
WTHR News Director Cyndee Hebert said her station started by alerting their audience that there was a shelter-in-place warning in the Beech Grove community, where the police were conducting a manhunt for the suspect the night of Feb. 16. Then she deployed two news crews: one waiting outside Eskenazi Hospital for news about the injured police officers and another at the media command post in Beech Grove. After police confirmed that Officer Elliott had died, WTHR worked with a police liaison in the days following to determine what media access the family would allow.
Hebert said that various Indy TV news crews worked together and pooled their resources to cover the funeral and respect the families’ wishes for a limited media presence. This type of collaboration is a recent development for Indy newsrooms. Instead of competing with each other, stations are supporting each other’s efforts, Hebert said. To her, this has been the only change in coverage. The amount of TV news coverage has largely stayed the same.
“We’ve realized the importance of sharing resources for this critical community event,” Hebert said. “Sadly, Central Indiana has had a number of law enforcement funerals to cover. WTHR views this as a public service to our viewers. It’s important that stations come together and pool our resources to show as much as we can to our viewers.”
“Maybe this is a city where it’s just really important to us to cover these funerals,” she said. “I don’t know if every city does it the same way or not. There have been times when maybe we’ve only streamed it and it hasn’t been on TV, on broadcast. There have been times when it’s all on broadcast. So that’s probably what changes the most.”
Variations in funeral broadcast coverage depend on the family’s wishes and the day and time of the funeral. These factors influence the broadcast and streaming decisions newsrooms make.
WTHR broke into regularly scheduled programming to broadcast the funeral on TV from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Feb. 23 and then switched to streaming it in its entirety after 1 p.m.
In the week after Elliott’s death, 22 stories appeared on WTHR’s website. I asked Hebert if that was too much coverage.
“There’s not a time where we say ‘that’s too much,’ but there is a time where we say, ‘okay, we do have to consider what’s the benefit,’ right?” Hebert said. She added that coverage of events surrounding fallen police officers depends on the story and who is available to tell it. “Is it someone new, a family member or close friend—or is it another fundraiser that we have already covered a number of times over the days since the incident,” Hebert said.
The IndyStar ran 26 different stories in the week following the shooting.
“We are trying our hardest every day to serve local readers, and that’s our No. 1 priority, to serve this community,” said Ryan Martin, IndyStar executive editor. “And any time there’s any sort of tragedy that strikes our community in any way, we see it not only as our mission, but our responsibility to do everything we can to report on that.”
As for the other media outlets in town, WISH ran 14 stories. FOX59 ran 13 stories. WRTV ran 11.
The public radio station, WFYI, included two stories in their local newscasts, one noting the officer’s death and one sharing the funeral details. Mirror Indy didn’t run any stories. News executives at both nonprofit newsrooms told me that because commercial media were covering the story, they didn’t see the need to do more coverage.
The relationship between news media and law enforcement
In the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020, many journalists questioned whether the profession had been too deferential to law enforcement, by publishing police press releases and repeating police statements unchecked.
After seeing the large volume of coverage and noting that it left many questions unanswered, I wondered whether Indy journalists were stepping back into that deferential relationship with police.
Martin, the IndyStar editor, is a former public safety reporter and editor himself, and covered two police funerals as a reporter. The paper’s approach to covering police officer funerals has not changed over the years, he said, although the paper also takes its obligation to scrutinize police power seriously.
“Police officers are public officials who oftentimes wield extraordinary power,” Martin said. “So as part of our due diligence as journalists, we are always examining that, and that hasn’t changed. I started working for the Indianapolis Star in 2015 and nothing about our commitment to that has changed.”
I asked two Indiana University professors about the attention the media gives the death of public servants like police officers. Jerry Daday is a sociology professor who specializes in criminology.
“The increased media attention might be due to the fact that police officers take an oath to protect and serve their communities, and with that, stop and prevent violence,” Daday said. “When a police officer is a victim of that violence, it generates a heightened emotional response. Someone who was serving and protecting their community ended up being the victim. In the minds of the public, that shouldn’t happen.”
Stephanie Whitehead is a professor of criminal justice and the director of the Center for Faculty Development. She has written on policing, race and the representation of social class and crime in popular culture.
“They’re seen as that thin blue line between order and chaos. So when one of them is killed, you know, it questions that order,” Whitehead said. “You know it makes things look out of control and like crime is out of control or people are out of control. It just reinforces the idea that crime is high and outrageous, even though it’s been going down for years. The media love crime stories anyway.”
I’m not as convinced as Whitehead that the coverage of Elliott’s death has the potential to exacerbate a false narrative of out-of-control crime. High interest stories about public safety always deserve the full attention and resources of the media. Any time an officer is shot in the line of duty, the entire community is harmed. Documenting that harm and the community’s response is appropriate.
And, I hope that journalists start to ask more difficult questions about this case. The people who live in Indianapolis, Beech Grove and every other community, deserve answers to important questions, including: Were the Beech Grove officers following their training and best practices? Did the suspect legally own the gun? And if not, where did it come from?
Asking hard questions in the wake of a tragedy is not a sign of disrespect to law enforcement. Instead, it’s a sign of respect to the public that both the police and journalists serve. And the answers to these questions will help us better understand whether we need to make improvements to the public safety infrastructure that protects us all.
Tracey Compton is Poynter’s Indianapolis Public Editor. You can send your questions about local media to her at indypubliceditor@poynter.org.
Plus, register here to meet Tracey at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, at the Central Library. The event is free and light refreshments will be served.
The Indy Public Editor is a grant-funded pilot project run by the Poynter Institute. This column is edited by Kelly McBride and copy edited by Lauren Klinger. The project is managed by Nicole Slaughter Graham with support from Amaris Castillo.
Mirror Indy publishes the Indianapolis public editor columns as part of a partnership with Poynter Institute to increase media literacy and trust in local journalism.