Cover homicide victims sensitively

By DEREK DONOVAN

Public editor

By DEREK DONOVAN

Updated: 2012-04-14T01:22:23Z

Some of the most difficult conversations I have with readers come when I'm contacted by family members or loved ones of the victims of violent crime. These situations involve the uncomfortable intersection between journalists' duty to report the news and a previously private citizen who has been thrust into the limelight unwillingly.

There's nowhere this tension is more painful than when it involves a homicide. I remember vividly speaking years ago to the father of a young woman who had been killed when she was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight in a busy public place, between two people she didn't know. The distraught father said he was certain his daughter hadn't been involved in any gang activity, but he was afraid that her name would carry that association forever because of the circumstances of her death. He requested that I work with editors to remove his daughter's name from KansasCity.com, not wanting search engines to direct people to the news story. While I sympathize greatly, it was a request I had to turn down. His grief was unimaginable to me, but information about the homicide has an overriding news value for the public.Kansas City's homicide rate has been high in recent years, numbering a tragic 114 in 2011 and on course to be even higher this year. And that means The Kansas City Star will be charged with writing about a great number of victims.The paper has started a new site, Homicide KC at homicide.kansascity.com. Its slogan is "Tracking every Kansas City homicide. Remembering every victim," with the goal of creating an entry for each individual. The site lists information such as the victims' age, place and cause of death, and suspects in the crimes.So far, most of the reader feedback I've heard about it has been positive. One emailer called the city's homicide rate "a horrific and ongoing tragedy, and one which should be a high priority for people throughout the metro, and most certainly the residents of the east side and officials at KCMO city hall."He reminded me that he'd contacted me a few months ago with a recommendation for the paper: "I suggested that the paper post all of the victims on the front page to very much put what's going on in everyone's faces. And I hope that a feature similar to that started on the (Homicide KC) website can be transformed into print."Not all! comment s on the site have been positive. "Here (The Star) goes again, always putting attention on the negative," said one caller. "Can you think what it might mean if you gave all that space to kids who are achieving in school, or making a regular feature about people who are trying to get the crime out of the city?" Another emailer expressed her concern that the photographs of several victims on the Homicide KC page are their police booking mug shots, taken when they had been arrested themselves in previous incidents."I can fully appreciate the thought behind Homicide KC," she emailed. "However the manner in which victims are presented has me a little concerned." She knew one of the victims on the site, and had read comments on other websites deriding her as "just 'another dead black youth.'" "Out of respect to the victims, their families, and friends, I wonder if there is a way that (The Star) could either work to get better photos through family or Facebook, or just not have them at all," she wrote.The newsroom does try to contact family members for photos, but those requests aren't always granted. I certainly understand this reader's point, especially because the booking photos don't carry any context. The victim may have been arrested for a non-violent crime that occurred years ago, and may have never been tried or convicted. Sometimes a photo tells an incomplete story, even when it pictures the right person.

To reach Derek Donovan, send email to publiceditor@kcstar.com or call weekday mornings at 816-234-4487. Follow him on Twitter at KCStarPublic.

Copyright 2012 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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