Photos or it didn’t happen

Hi! Friendly neighborhood consumer reporter here! Let me know if you’d like me to look into this. That’s wild.

As an industry, we have to find a better way.

Stop badgering people who've just been through the worst. Stop showing up unannounced.

Start being trauma-informed.

I'll never quote them unless they know they're being quoted. I won't creep around their house.

Unfortunately, Colorado has a history of horrific incidents and I've gotten to know a few victims. They've told me stories of the secondary trauma they feel from this kind of reporting

I research. See if I can find an obvious family spokesperson. I send that person a message or try to call. If I can't find one, I try to send a text message or leave a voicemail explaining who I am.

I'll never surprise someone...

I've always tried to approach these stories with a trauma-informed mindset. Victims have been through one of the worst moments of their life... the last thing they want is some surprise on their doorstep begging them to sit in lights in front of a camera and tell their story.

Most local reporters I know do this much differently than our national counterparts for two reasons:

- This is our community and these are our neighbors
- We know that we'll be covering this story for the long haul.

This has happened during every tragedy I've covered. I remember vividly listening to a national reporter ask the family member of a woman killed in the King Soopers shooting if they watched a livestream of the shooting... a day after the shooting.

The reporter who wrote the story brags on his LinkedIn bio that he "parachutes in" to communities to cover crises.

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of people parachuting in to my community for a "scoop" with little care for the impact their tactics have on a community.

I wish.