COMO POLICE REP: Heart Beat wrong for not confirming detective identity

Haden COLUMBIA, 8/9/10  (Beat Byte) --  Concerned about the content and context of an email warning sent from a Columbia Police detective, CPD public information officer Jessie Haden (left) asked this writer why she hadn't been contacted to confirm the detective's identity before an August 3 Heart Beat story, WARNING:  "Police detective" email sounds bike rally alarm. 

 

"You never asked me about the source of the e-mail," Haden wrote me. 

 

"The individual who forwarded the email -- a credible person -- stood by the account that it was from a Columbia police department detective," I explained.  "But this individual wouldn't reveal the name of the source, a personal friend.   I felt it best to leave it there, duly noting that 'Attempts to confirm the identity of the emailing Paul Revere were unsuccessful' and using qualifiers like 'purportedly' and 'alleged.'  I did believe that it originated from a CPD detective." 

 

"You're right about [the email's] origin," Haden said.  "I'm just saying, if your source won't confirm, please feel free to check with me on these things;  I may not know, but I may," she explained.  "I actually do in this case and could have filled you in.  Clarifying all that kind of makes it a non-story." 

 

Haden makes a number of valid points.  But absent primary source confirmation, "only very rarely would I go to a secondary source not directly involved" (in this case, Officer Haden), I explained. 

 

Haden did not release the identity of the CPD detective who sent the email nor did I request it.   Given the new information, the story does seem larger, however.