It has been argued that providing an extensive amount of information about crimes on the television and newspapers can lead to negative outcomes, therefore, it has to be regulated more strictly. While it might be true that data leaks on the crime can prolong the investigation process, I believe that offering more information to the public could also positively affect the process by increasing the chance to find witnesses and spreading the awareness about a possible danger to the public.
Admittedly, there is no doubt that providing more information to the public on ongoing crimes might make the process more sophisticated for investigators. To be precise, during some crime cases where the alleged intruder was actively searched by authorities, making the exact location of officers and the stage of the investigation available to the media enabled the culprit to escape the officers with a greater success. As more information is provided on live through the TV or articles, criminals are able to carefully plan their next move while being aware of authorities’ plan. Therefore, offering excessive information to the wider audience via media outlets can take a toll on the innvestigation process, and make it easier to criminals to escape the justice. Nevertheless, providing the updates through the news could potentially save lives of more people. In particular, more information about the crime and its exact location being published and broadcasted might raise an awareness to the local population. By being aware of where the crime took place and its possible causes, such as a robbery, local people can take better precautions, including establishing safety systems around their house and warning their family members. As a result, there is a higher chance that people would be better prepared to possible dangerous scenarios, and this can safe more lives.
Furthermore, giving more detailed information about the criminal case to newspapers and other media does not only ensure greater awareness, but can also potentially contribute to authorities by locating more witnesses. For example, some people can unintentionally come across the crime scene and the criminal, and not pay attention to it afterwards. Hence, ensuring that whereabouts of the criminal case is available to the public can allow witnesses to get in touch with investigators and help to potentially solve the case. Moreover, such cases where witnesses assisted the case by calling the police after hearing about the crime on the news happen somewhat often.
To conclude, although it is true that providing the descriptive information about the crime and whereabouts of criminals can assist them to escape local authorities, I think that newspapers and television raise the awareness about the crime and provide possible help to the case development.