Preston Trigg, Director of Administration and Special Projects for the Hillsborough County Tax Collector (take a breath; he said long titles in government are supposedly a good thing), visited the class today to talk about what reporters should look for within the tax collector's system.
He said that the state of Florida decided to make everything a public record then just write exemption laws to protect citizens’ privacy. He even dedicated a slide to his quite helpful powerpoint presentation to tell exactly what a public record is.
“All documents, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, recordings, software… regardless of physical form… make or received pursuant to law or in connection with transaction of official business.” --Florida statutes Section 119.011 (11)
But specifically within the tax collector’s office, reporters can find property tax, business tax, and motor vehicle (to an extent because of the Driver Privacy Protection Act of 1994) records. Anyone who owns a property, business or a motor vehicle can show up on the tax collector’s website.
One topic Trigg stressed the most was the property taxes. He told us reporters can find so much about a person just through the person’s property tax records. Property tax records include transaction records that contain the amount the person bought it for, sold it for, whom they sold to or bought from, title transfers, whether they paid their property taxes, and how late their payments were.
Near the economic downturn, reporters opened the doors to several real estate fraud cases all because of public property tax records. Neal Mohammed Husani and Micheal Tringali, two of the more notorious property flip scammers were busted after being exposed from tax records.
This article from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune is a great example of the true power of using tax records to uncover some shady deals going on with property.
Trigg also showed an example of what a person’s property tax information looks like on the hillstax.org website. The most important things that show up are whether or not the owner has paid the taxes on that property, the assessed value and the just value of the property.
The assessed value is the amount the tax collector charges taxes on and the just value is the actual value of the property. These two values should be the same in normal cases. Usually when the values are different, something fishy is going on. It can either be a piece of property used in a property flip scam, or there is an environmental issue with that property.
The property appraiser is the person in charge of judging values of property each year.
Trigg said one way people try to get away with property flip scam is to try to get the appraiser to say a property is worth more than what it really is. If the appraiser agrees to lie about it, he or she could be in for some serious trouble if caught, which the likelihood is obviously great, since it’s all public record.
Property is probably the most expensive thing to buy in a person’s life. When people started to see that it’s profitable to buy a house and sell it for more (because it’s so damn expensive), people wanted in on the business. When it started getting out of control (when the scams started running rampant), that’s when the economy started to fall.
Trigg’s lecture wasn’t just great for reporters, it would be good for any homeowners, past, present or future.
These records should be seen before buying a home. With real estate being so low now, people are starting to get the hint that once the economy starts improving, real estate value will increase.
This information would be extremely helpful for not just journalism students, but for anyone interested in buying a home. Not many people have enough cash to buy a home. It’s usually an investment over many many years. So before making that investment, do the research. It’s always worth it and it’s only a few clicks away.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Trip to the Orient Rd. Jail
"Getting in is easy, it's getting out that's the hard part." -Lieutenant Allen
I actually took notes this time. I'd like to just talk about my journey through the jail; it's a good enough story.
I got to see the booking area, the records office, the confinement rooms, the general rooms, the common area for inmates, the room with 29 screens showing every security camera view, and the long corridor with some passing inmates.
I actually stated those events backwards because the cops said they would give us a backwards tour.
The first thing I saw once we got into the locked area was a single file line of inmates wearing orange jumpsuits walking down the very open hall. They were walking along the wall furthest from my group and this one inmate stood out to me. He was staring at all of us, which I can't blame him, we're a bunch of attractive college students, but he was staring at us like a jackass. I can't explain it any better, he just looked like a total fool. The expression on his face was like "ooh who are these people?" And I wasn't even thinking when I blurted out "the hell you lookin' at, inmate?" I don't think I said it loud enough for him to hear, but I know I wasn't the only one in my group who wanted to see an inmate do something stupid. We all wanna see some action happen. We're journalists.
The first room we got to see was the security camera room. There were tons of montiors, as I said, 29 screens. Some of them were showing multiple camera views, just a second from one camera, then it would flash to another camera view. Real neat stuff. There were big maps of the jail of each floor on the walls.
Allen told us that 70,000 people get booked in the Orient Road Jail per year. He said that the average amount of time spent in jail is 28 days, but since the judge started hearing cases within 7 days of an inmate's time in jail, the average lowered to 22 days.
Even though inmates are people who committed crimes, they're still people. Allen talked about in case of a hurricane, the inmates would be moved to the upper floors of the jail. With the jail being only 14 feet above sea level, I'm sure one could imagine that place flooding pretty easily. The jail stays stocked with 3 days of food and water at all times.
We then went to the inmate common area where inmates can watch TV, play cards, twiddle their thumbs, etc. It's basically where the inmates get come out of their cells and play. Needless to say, there wasn't much else because if there was any more, people would be like "what's so bad about jail if they have all these things to pass time?"
When the inmates are bad, they go into solitary confinement; the cell for those who don't get along with others. That place looks terrible. The inmates in solitary confinement spend 22 hours of the day there. This is where people go crazy if they aren't already. The cops had stories of people mutilating themselves in all kinds of disgusting ways that I really don't wish to share (but I will anyway). One of the cops told us that one guy asphyixiated himself by shoving his bed sheet down his throat. Another story was about how a man took out one of his family jewels (with his own hands), another about this woman who doesn't bathe, ugh. I'm already cringing as I type this.
We next visited the inmate courthouse. I was wondering how the inmates made it down to the courthouse downtown but the one in the jail has two big cameras that feed the footage of the criminal trials to journalists. It makes it easier so reporters from 7 different stations aren't all trying to film the same trial. But the inmate courthouse is basically an assembly line trial because as Allen said, there are 70,000 bookings per year. If the judge worked every single day of the year, he would hear more than 190 cases per day. And the judge is also a regular human being and has weekends and vacations, so he really sees more than that.
The booking office is where there were no barriers between my class and I and the inmates. These inmates were looking at us like we were literally dinner. Pieces of meat. Some of the girls in my class (including me) were not exactly dressed for the jail. Many girls were wearing shorts, I think another girl had a dress on, but yeah, a couple of them got some rude remarks from the inmates sitting in the booking office. So we made a beeline away from them to explore the different aspects of the booking room. There was the intake section, I guess the first checkpoint for the inmate, then there were the medical, fingerprinting, classification, and property sections. The medical section is where the inmates medical records are handled in case an inmate is diabetic or needs special care. The fingerprinting section, well, obviously that's where the inmates get to put some ink on their hands and touch things. Probably the only place in jail where they can do that. Classification is basically where the jail staff declares the inmate's case as a high-profile or not. Property is where they take away all the inmate's stuff: clothes, jewelry, possessions, everything. They strip you down and give it back when the inmate gets out (except the illegal stuff).
Then the public records office, the only place where we learned something we probably would have heard in class. Verlin Compton (not sure if that's how it's spelled, can't find her information on the internet anywhere) told us what parts of an inmate record is not public record. She listed off social security numbers, juvenile information, medical records, high profile inmate records, and witness and victim information.
When I left the jail, I had a new nickname: Helmet. I tried to carpool it there but I didn't try hard enough so I ended up having to take my motorcycle and I had to let the jail's front office staff hang on to my helmet and backpack since we couldn't bring anything into the area inmates have access to. I wish I could've left my shit in the car. I don't like being called Helmet.
I actually took notes this time. I'd like to just talk about my journey through the jail; it's a good enough story.
I got to see the booking area, the records office, the confinement rooms, the general rooms, the common area for inmates, the room with 29 screens showing every security camera view, and the long corridor with some passing inmates.
I actually stated those events backwards because the cops said they would give us a backwards tour.
The first thing I saw once we got into the locked area was a single file line of inmates wearing orange jumpsuits walking down the very open hall. They were walking along the wall furthest from my group and this one inmate stood out to me. He was staring at all of us, which I can't blame him, we're a bunch of attractive college students, but he was staring at us like a jackass. I can't explain it any better, he just looked like a total fool. The expression on his face was like "ooh who are these people?" And I wasn't even thinking when I blurted out "the hell you lookin' at, inmate?" I don't think I said it loud enough for him to hear, but I know I wasn't the only one in my group who wanted to see an inmate do something stupid. We all wanna see some action happen. We're journalists.
The first room we got to see was the security camera room. There were tons of montiors, as I said, 29 screens. Some of them were showing multiple camera views, just a second from one camera, then it would flash to another camera view. Real neat stuff. There were big maps of the jail of each floor on the walls.
Allen told us that 70,000 people get booked in the Orient Road Jail per year. He said that the average amount of time spent in jail is 28 days, but since the judge started hearing cases within 7 days of an inmate's time in jail, the average lowered to 22 days.
Even though inmates are people who committed crimes, they're still people. Allen talked about in case of a hurricane, the inmates would be moved to the upper floors of the jail. With the jail being only 14 feet above sea level, I'm sure one could imagine that place flooding pretty easily. The jail stays stocked with 3 days of food and water at all times.
We then went to the inmate common area where inmates can watch TV, play cards, twiddle their thumbs, etc. It's basically where the inmates get come out of their cells and play. Needless to say, there wasn't much else because if there was any more, people would be like "what's so bad about jail if they have all these things to pass time?"
When the inmates are bad, they go into solitary confinement; the cell for those who don't get along with others. That place looks terrible. The inmates in solitary confinement spend 22 hours of the day there. This is where people go crazy if they aren't already. The cops had stories of people mutilating themselves in all kinds of disgusting ways that I really don't wish to share (but I will anyway). One of the cops told us that one guy asphyixiated himself by shoving his bed sheet down his throat. Another story was about how a man took out one of his family jewels (with his own hands), another about this woman who doesn't bathe, ugh. I'm already cringing as I type this.
We next visited the inmate courthouse. I was wondering how the inmates made it down to the courthouse downtown but the one in the jail has two big cameras that feed the footage of the criminal trials to journalists. It makes it easier so reporters from 7 different stations aren't all trying to film the same trial. But the inmate courthouse is basically an assembly line trial because as Allen said, there are 70,000 bookings per year. If the judge worked every single day of the year, he would hear more than 190 cases per day. And the judge is also a regular human being and has weekends and vacations, so he really sees more than that.
The booking office is where there were no barriers between my class and I and the inmates. These inmates were looking at us like we were literally dinner. Pieces of meat. Some of the girls in my class (including me) were not exactly dressed for the jail. Many girls were wearing shorts, I think another girl had a dress on, but yeah, a couple of them got some rude remarks from the inmates sitting in the booking office. So we made a beeline away from them to explore the different aspects of the booking room. There was the intake section, I guess the first checkpoint for the inmate, then there were the medical, fingerprinting, classification, and property sections. The medical section is where the inmates medical records are handled in case an inmate is diabetic or needs special care. The fingerprinting section, well, obviously that's where the inmates get to put some ink on their hands and touch things. Probably the only place in jail where they can do that. Classification is basically where the jail staff declares the inmate's case as a high-profile or not. Property is where they take away all the inmate's stuff: clothes, jewelry, possessions, everything. They strip you down and give it back when the inmate gets out (except the illegal stuff).
Then the public records office, the only place where we learned something we probably would have heard in class. Verlin Compton (not sure if that's how it's spelled, can't find her information on the internet anywhere) told us what parts of an inmate record is not public record. She listed off social security numbers, juvenile information, medical records, high profile inmate records, and witness and victim information.
When I left the jail, I had a new nickname: Helmet. I tried to carpool it there but I didn't try hard enough so I ended up having to take my motorcycle and I had to let the jail's front office staff hang on to my helmet and backpack since we couldn't bring anything into the area inmates have access to. I wish I could've left my shit in the car. I don't like being called Helmet.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
HCSO visit
I never thought I'd be taking the trip downtown but good thing it was via my own motorcycle. Today I had the opportunity (like every other student who takes this class) to meet with J.D. Callaway, Director of Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office's Community Affairs Office (that is a LONG title!), and Cristal Bermudez Nuñez from the HCSO Community Affairs Office. I was pleased to hear them talk about the do's and don'ts of reporter-police relationships involving what information can and cannot be released, what parts of the scene a reporter can and cannot be on, and the proper way of obtaining archives.
There are all kinds of obvious investigative information that can be released such as the location, date, time, type of incident and all that jazz. The one type of information that could be released that stood out to me was the "amount and type of property taken, including value when known or estimated to the nearest hundred dollars. (Exception: monies taken in a robbery or embezzlement.)" I agree with that because they can release the amount of what something other than money is worth but not the amount of cash taken. I can imagine the news showing a story about a robber taking $1 million in cash from a bank, then a crook sees it on TV, finds the robber and takes the money and then it disappears because the crook spent it all as if it was his while the cops are busy with the original robber. Also, if the robber robs $1 million worth of necklaces from a jewelry store, the necklaces are easier to recover because everyone will know an expensive necklace when they see it. Also, if the money gets recovered, other crooks will know how much that establishment is holding, which could make it a hot spot for future robberies.
When it comes to crime scenes, how close can the reporter really get? I've always been curious about that if I ever got to be a TV reporter, what do I do when I'm covering a crime scene? One thing I learned was that in "hostage or barricade situations, the deputy in charge shall designate a preliminary press perimeter upon arrival at the scene." I did not know that! How fascinating and how privileged a reporter is to the police! I always thought there was a slight animosity between the press and the police but maybe the police do that because it makes their job easier when they don't have to deal with us nosy reporters.
While touring the station, I passed by the public records office. That's where the public goes to the station to get records. One thing that confused me was if it's public record, why the hell isn't it online already? Some people are still bound to hard copies, and they have a reason to be. The procedure HCSO follows said something that stood out to me: "Any member who does not know the facts shall assist by referring the inquiry to the proper authority providing the name and telephone number of the individual to be contacted, if necessary. Vague referrals such as "the sergeant," "detectives," "Sheriff's Office," or "P.I.O.," shall be avoided." I thought that was a good bit of information at the end of that where the vague referrals shall be avoided. Even though it's pretty obvious who the sergeant is sometimes, not everyone knows who the sergeant is or how to contact the sergeant.
Well, that was the most interesting stuff that I remember about the visit. We did get to see the 911 call center, that was cool, a job I'd probably like to do, but at the same time, is that what I really want to do? I wanna be famous and have people listen to my problems, not listen to other people's problems.
(All quotes came from the HCSO's Standard Operating Procedure when dealing with media.)
There are all kinds of obvious investigative information that can be released such as the location, date, time, type of incident and all that jazz. The one type of information that could be released that stood out to me was the "amount and type of property taken, including value when known or estimated to the nearest hundred dollars. (Exception: monies taken in a robbery or embezzlement.)" I agree with that because they can release the amount of what something other than money is worth but not the amount of cash taken. I can imagine the news showing a story about a robber taking $1 million in cash from a bank, then a crook sees it on TV, finds the robber and takes the money and then it disappears because the crook spent it all as if it was his while the cops are busy with the original robber. Also, if the robber robs $1 million worth of necklaces from a jewelry store, the necklaces are easier to recover because everyone will know an expensive necklace when they see it. Also, if the money gets recovered, other crooks will know how much that establishment is holding, which could make it a hot spot for future robberies.
When it comes to crime scenes, how close can the reporter really get? I've always been curious about that if I ever got to be a TV reporter, what do I do when I'm covering a crime scene? One thing I learned was that in "hostage or barricade situations, the deputy in charge shall designate a preliminary press perimeter upon arrival at the scene." I did not know that! How fascinating and how privileged a reporter is to the police! I always thought there was a slight animosity between the press and the police but maybe the police do that because it makes their job easier when they don't have to deal with us nosy reporters.
While touring the station, I passed by the public records office. That's where the public goes to the station to get records. One thing that confused me was if it's public record, why the hell isn't it online already? Some people are still bound to hard copies, and they have a reason to be. The procedure HCSO follows said something that stood out to me: "Any member who does not know the facts shall assist by referring the inquiry to the proper authority providing the name and telephone number of the individual to be contacted, if necessary. Vague referrals such as "the sergeant," "detectives," "Sheriff's Office," or "P.I.O.," shall be avoided." I thought that was a good bit of information at the end of that where the vague referrals shall be avoided. Even though it's pretty obvious who the sergeant is sometimes, not everyone knows who the sergeant is or how to contact the sergeant.
Well, that was the most interesting stuff that I remember about the visit. We did get to see the 911 call center, that was cool, a job I'd probably like to do, but at the same time, is that what I really want to do? I wanna be famous and have people listen to my problems, not listen to other people's problems.
(All quotes came from the HCSO's Standard Operating Procedure when dealing with media.)
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Matt Doig lecture
Matt Doig visited the class today to share some advice on using public records. Doig is an investigative reporter for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and was the force behind exposing the real estate fraud "flip" scheme in Florida. So he had some good words to share.
One of the points he mentioned was the importance of getting people to talk. Getting the story isn't only about digging through records and finding the hard evidence. It's also about talking to people, the subject, the subject's close ones, relatives and co-workers. When a reporter goes to a source for information, every detail could be important from the decorations of the room to the way his subject's secretary looks at him.
Someone in the class asked him how a reporter would get someone to talk, and I really just wanted to answer that one myself, but Doig answered it pretty much the same way I would have. Doig told him he just needs to talk to people, establish a common ground, or what sales people would call build rapport. The person isn't going to talk if they're not comfortable. It's up to the reporter to make their interviewee feel like they can tell them anything. I fortunately have a knack for getting people to open up to me. It probably comes from a lot of practice talking to strangers.
After class was over, I approached Doig with the same question in mind to see if there could be anything I could improve upon when it comes to getting people to talk. I don't have much experience talking to people as a reporter but as a regular schoolgirl with no title or news organization. So I asked him what else gets people to talk to him. He said, "Be a good listener." He also told me he was actually antisocial which surprised me because I am too, yet I'm very good at one-on-one conversations.
What I learned from Doig's lecture today was that good investigative reporting includes not only finding the records and going through the databases, but also talking to the people involved in the story. As my professor called it the "yin yang of interviewing and researching," there really needs to be a balance of those two aspects in a good investigative report.
I'll leave this with a link to one of Doig's responses to his hate mail. It's pretty good reading if you ask me.
http://www.poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=9175
One of the points he mentioned was the importance of getting people to talk. Getting the story isn't only about digging through records and finding the hard evidence. It's also about talking to people, the subject, the subject's close ones, relatives and co-workers. When a reporter goes to a source for information, every detail could be important from the decorations of the room to the way his subject's secretary looks at him.
Someone in the class asked him how a reporter would get someone to talk, and I really just wanted to answer that one myself, but Doig answered it pretty much the same way I would have. Doig told him he just needs to talk to people, establish a common ground, or what sales people would call build rapport. The person isn't going to talk if they're not comfortable. It's up to the reporter to make their interviewee feel like they can tell them anything. I fortunately have a knack for getting people to open up to me. It probably comes from a lot of practice talking to strangers.
After class was over, I approached Doig with the same question in mind to see if there could be anything I could improve upon when it comes to getting people to talk. I don't have much experience talking to people as a reporter but as a regular schoolgirl with no title or news organization. So I asked him what else gets people to talk to him. He said, "Be a good listener." He also told me he was actually antisocial which surprised me because I am too, yet I'm very good at one-on-one conversations.
What I learned from Doig's lecture today was that good investigative reporting includes not only finding the records and going through the databases, but also talking to the people involved in the story. As my professor called it the "yin yang of interviewing and researching," there really needs to be a balance of those two aspects in a good investigative report.
I'll leave this with a link to one of Doig's responses to his hate mail. It's pretty good reading if you ask me.
http://www.poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=9175
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Tim Nickens lecture
Last Tuesday, Tim Nickens, an editor for the St. Pete Times, visited the class to talk about his experience using public records. He had lots of fascinating stories about how public records can be really important for writing stories. He had a story about how public records brought down a politician who was using his government money to pay for his $6M private plane hangar. I thought it was hilarious! It made me think more about how journalists have to be sadistic in this profession.
As journalists, we are the ones catching corrupt politicians with their asses up. It's up to us to let the public know what these scumbags are doing with our hard-earned tax dollars. All we need to do is find the evidence. If it wasn't for public records, this dirty politician would still be in control, wasting your money. They try to cover their tracks well, but all it takes is to find something out of the ordinary in someone's budget or their other public records, ask them about it, if they say something that doesn't match up or make sense to what that record says, go find the dissonance, catch them lying, and boom, their career in public office is no more. Their career. For us to be the one to expose them of their shady and otherwise unknown wrongs, and have their source of income taken away from them, affecting their personal lives and families, we have to have no heart sometimes, or a good way of justifying it within ourselves. But it's pretty simple to justify exposing a politician. If Joe Politician broke the law, the law he probably MADE, then he doesn't deserve to be a politician. If Joe Politician is wasting your tax money on his new jet, I think you would want to know about it, and I think you would not want him to do that. Public records are great for catching politicians with their ass up!
As journalists, we are the ones catching corrupt politicians with their asses up. It's up to us to let the public know what these scumbags are doing with our hard-earned tax dollars. All we need to do is find the evidence. If it wasn't for public records, this dirty politician would still be in control, wasting your money. They try to cover their tracks well, but all it takes is to find something out of the ordinary in someone's budget or their other public records, ask them about it, if they say something that doesn't match up or make sense to what that record says, go find the dissonance, catch them lying, and boom, their career in public office is no more. Their career. For us to be the one to expose them of their shady and otherwise unknown wrongs, and have their source of income taken away from them, affecting their personal lives and families, we have to have no heart sometimes, or a good way of justifying it within ourselves. But it's pretty simple to justify exposing a politician. If Joe Politician broke the law, the law he probably MADE, then he doesn't deserve to be a politician. If Joe Politician is wasting your tax money on his new jet, I think you would want to know about it, and I think you would not want him to do that. Public records are great for catching politicians with their ass up!
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