Pew funds supported the hiring of a community coordinator, Charlene Price-Patterson, who was instrumental in organizing town meetings and focus groups and coordinating reader response.

Reporting started with a computer-assisted analysis of two years of crime statistics that helped the partners select which neighborhoods to focus on. They then polled 400 neighb orhood residents about what they believed to be the root causes of the crime rate. The partners also asked residents of each neighborhood to join an advisory panel that would help frame coverage and define what they saw as the causes and solutions.

Meanwhile, reporters hit the streets to do ground-level reporting on the crime situation in each neighborhood and to produce parallel reports about what worked in neighborhoods where crime was dropping. When the stories ran, the paper included boxes of very specific actions readers could take to help, including a "needs list" drawn up by residents of items and services that could be donated to make improvements in their neighborhoods. The paper also published a telephone number, manned by the United Way, where volunteers could sign up to help.

The response was large and immediate. Lawyers volunteered to use the legal process to shut down crack houses. Volunteers cleared a neglected community park, and started an after-school program and Girl Scout troops. The government also responded, razing unsafe buildings, improving sidewalks and storm drains, sending special police task forces into neighborhoods and launching recreational activities for children. In many of the neighborhoods, crime rates dropped.

Follow-up stories in subsequent years showed improvements continuing in most communities. The project won the 1996 Batten Award.

Contact:

Chuck Clark (former Government Editor, The Observer)
City Editor
Orlando Sentinel
633 N. Orange Avenue
Orlando, FL 32801
TEL: (407) 420-5468
EMAIL: cclark@orlandosentinel.com

A Collision Course, Idaho Falls, ID 1998

Partners:

Idaho Falls Post Register
Lewiston Morning Tribune
Idaho Spokesman-Review
Idaho Public Television
KTVB (NBC, Boise)

This unique partnership sparked a statewide conversation on Idaho's runaway prison spending with "Collision Course," a five-part series that revealed the hidden cost of building more jails and engaged hundreds of people in the search for alternatives.

As a point of comparison, the partners chose declining state spending on higher education to illustrate how escalating prison spending was affecting Idaho's quality of life. A poll of 804 residents in October 1997 showed 73 percent disagreed with the state's spending priorities. A series of focus groups in six communities explored the reasoning behind the opinions the poll surfaced.

Each paper focused on one part of the overall story. The Spokesman-Review, for instance, coordinated polling and took the lead role in writing the kick-off segment while the Statesman created a database on prison population trends and wrote the bulk of prisoner profiles and articles on higher education. All four papers ran the series from Nov. 16 to 24, 1997. KTVB produced a four-part series of stories that week. Idaho public television broadcast a live town hall meeting Nov. 24.

The series prompted a noticeable change in elected officials' approach to the issue, which had been dominated by law-and-order, lock-'em-up rhetoric. After the series, legislators explored sentencing reform proposals that would reduce the number of non-violent offenders incarcerated.

The partners seized the momentum of the project to launch "Idaho Speaks Out," a civic approach to their 1998 election coverage. A statewide poll in May, the largest ever taken in Idaho, revealed four major issues-federal debt, health care costs, taxes and schools-as voters biggest concerns. A second poll in September refined the findings, showing that education was the issue that would most influence voter decisions. The partners shared the information and analysis; then each partner used it to develop stories tailored to local readers and viewers.

"Collision Course" shared in the 1998 Batten Award.

Contact:

Dennis Joyce (formerly with Statesman)
Asst Managing Editor
Arizona Daily Star
PO Box 26807
Tucson, AZ 85726-6807
Phone: (520) 573-4224
Fax: (520) 573-4200
Email: djoyce@azstarnet.com