A thin blue line

Print media today turns on cosy deals between NSW Police and television production crews, who are seemingly granted access to crime scenes over and above other media.

The Daily Telegraph says the force has signed contracts with at least four shows, granting film crews exclusive access behind the crime scene tape in “user pays” arrangements.

The deals are being made as the force limits the amount of information being made available to the mainstream media, including The Daily Telegraph.

But police say the access being granted to shows such as Channel 7’s The Force and Crash Investigations Unit, Channel 9’s Missing Persons Unit and Channel 10’s upcoming The Recruits, is an arrangement available to any media outlet that wishes to enter into a user-pays contract.

In return for signing confidentiality agreements and allowing NSW Police to vet their final products, TV crews are ushered in by police film supervisors to crime scenes while other media are being kept back.

In the past two months, The Force’s crew has been behind the scenes of some major investigations. They were on the scene of the alleged double murder of Asian sex workers in Auburn in November, and have also filmed numerous drug raids.

A NSW Police spokesman said the force had “deeds in place” with a number of commercial organisations.

He said the deeds stipulated the material could air only after “proceedings have been completed against any offender and does not compromise any legal action.”

Criminal checks were done in advance on film crews, who were supervised and not allowed to disclose police methodology or information that they observed while filming.

In Victoria the Transport Accident Commission has also put taxpayer funds into the production of Sudden Impact, Nine’s new factual series, which it says fulfills part of its charter to educate the community about road safety -including reaching those outside Victorian borders….

Source: Daily Telegraph