Public Records and Breaking News, a handout compiled by Michelle Guido for her Planning for Breaking News session at Orlando NewsTrain on May 15-16, 2015. Instructor Michelle Guido offers a a checklist for constructing a breaking-news coverage plan. Guido is a journalist with 25 years of award-winning work across print, digital and television platforms. Most recently, she was managing editor of WESH 2 News, the NBC affiliate in Orlando.

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Public records and breaking news
Michelle Guido | @mguido | michelleguido31@yahoo.com
Planning for breaking news in the digital age
Although breaking news situations can be hectic, and the immediate focus is often on
getting the facts online and to your readers/viewers, all stories can be strengthened by
going beyond details from the scene. Public records are important. Unlike witnesses at a
scene, or other sources, they can’t be disputed. If you have a police report, court file or
other government document, you can always feel confident about using it in your
reporting.
Lexis.com
This in an invaluable resource and hopefully, your organization has an account. It can be
expensive, so you may have to use it sparingly, but it’s the single best way to background
a person quickly. (See Lexis.com cheat sheet handout.)
Local and state data – know what is available
In Florida, we are lucky that much information is available through the state’s Sunshine
Law. Much of this info is now accessible online and can be very helpful in a breaking
news situation.
Property records: If you have an address, you can quickly look up who owns the
property and try to reach them. Often, phone numbers are in property records. Be
careful not to assume that the homeowners are somehow connected to your news story.
They could be renting their property.
Property tax records are kept by the Property Appraiser in each Florida county. Here’s a
directory of those appraisers who offer property searches online:
http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/Florida-Assessor-and-Property-Tax-
Records.htm
Crime: A murder, spree of robberies or some other rash of crimes has happened, and a
suspect has been identified and arrested. You can find out whether he or she has a
criminal history (by county) by searching the county’s Clerk of Courts website. Be
mindful that if someone is arrested in a certain county, they could have a record in other
counties as well. Here are the websites for Florida’s Clerks of Courts by county:
http://dos.myflorida.com/library-archives/research/florida-
information/government/local-resources/clerks-of-county-courts/
*** Keep in mind that while police departments and jails often redact copies of public
records before giving them to the press, you can often find unredacted copies in the file
at the courthouse. Arrest affidavits often include details that would otherwise be
redacted. Use good judgment: DON’T publish the name of a rape victim, a minor child
or an undercover officer.

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Court records: Divorces, domestic-violence restraining orders and civil lawsuits can
often contain useful information about the subject of a story. The details are not
generally accessible online, but you can look up cases and see what documents exist. If
they seem interesting, go to the courthouse and pull them.
Jaimi Dowdell of IRE has an extensive tipsheet on finding and using public records
after a disaster. Here are some of the highlights:
Remember that data are at your fingertips. Know what data are available in advance,
and practice searching databases so you’re familiar with them before deadline.
OSHA workplace-safety inspections: http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/index.html
Motor vehicle deaths from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx
U.S. Department of Justice National sex-offender registry:
http://www.nsopw.gov/en
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/ You can search by state and
subject (employment, unemployment, pay and benefits).
U.S. Census: American FactFinder has quick profiles of states, counties, etc.
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
EPA http://www.epa.gov/epahome/commsearch.htm Environmental data searches.
Search your environment by ZIP Code.
FAA data: (service-difficulty reports, on-time data, aircraft registry, etc.):
www.faa.gov/data_research
BRB Publications: http://www.brbpub.com/ gateway to many searchable records by
state.
NTSB accident reports:
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/data/Pages/Data_Stats.aspx
FBI uniform crime reports: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr
Data.gov: www.data.gov “The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high
value, machine-readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal
Government.”
www.USAspending.gov is the publicly accessible, searchable website mandated by
the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 to give the American
public access to information on how their tax dollars are spent. Search and download
federal contracts, grants and more.