Abstract—Crime reporters and police public information officers struggle over control of the messages that the public receives on crime. This study is based on national surveys of both groups in the United States and measures their perceptions on message control, use of social media, and the handling of body camera footage and public records. Keywords—gatekeeping, agenda setting, public information officers, crime reporting, message control, police body cameras, social media, public records I. INTRODUCTION Journalists and public relations professionals have long had a love-hate relationship, mainly because of conflicts over setting the public agenda and struggles over gatekeeping (Cameron et al, 2012). This tension is seen vividly in the relationship between reporters who cover crime and the public information officers who work in law enforcement. Crime reporters are not alone among reporters who feel government public information officers in the United States are focusing their efforts more and more on trying to control the messages that their agencies send out to the public, by trying to control what information reporters have access to (Carlson & Cuillier, 2014). Research has shown that obtaining interviews with government officials have become more difficult throughout the years since the increase in power of public information officers (PIOs) (Cameron et al, 2012; Carlson & Cuillier, 2014; Carlson, Cuillier, and Royer, 2015). PIOS are the communication professionals of governmental organizations such as police organizations, environmental organizations and so forth. Many governmental organizations require that all interviews with government employees be cleared by or in the presence of a PIO. Naturally, this occurrence causes an increase of work for journalists and governmental employees. Part of this research seeks to examine whether or not PIOs are also acting as controllers for messages being sent by employees. II. LITERATURE REVIEW A great deal of research has been conducted on the relationship between public relation practitioners and journalists. An earlier study of the relationship between government public information officers and political reporters, for instance, found that message control was a higher priority among federal level PIOs – and a bigger source of frustration for the political reporters who cover them – than with PIOs and reporters at lower levels of government (Carlson & Cuillier, 2014). Another study conducted by Carlson, Cuillier, and Royer (2015) found that science and environmental workers tend to struggle retrieving information from government agencies. Carlson, Cuillier. and Royer (2015) found that 74.2 percent of respondents in the study had to have their questions preapproved before interviewing. Not many studies have been conducted on the relationships between public information officers and journalists concerning body cameras and information being sent and received between the two. This literature review will explain the definition as well as the application of the agenda setting theory and the theory of gatekeeping, previous research conducted on the use and importance of body cameras, and the relationships between government PIOs and the media. a. Agenda-Setting Theory Serban (2015) described the theory of gatekeeping as infinite events take place every day and thus journalists must pick and choose which Dr. Carolyn S. Carlson Kennesaw State University; School of Communication and Media. Kennesaw, United States ccarls10@kennesaw.edu Paymon Kashani Kennesaw State University; School of Communication and Media, Kennesaw, United States pkashani@grad.kennesaw.edu GSTF Journal on Media & Communications (JMC) Vol.3 No.2, 2017 Mediated Access Police Public Information Officers and Crime Reporters on Message Control, Social Media, Body Camera Footage and Public Records DOI: 10.5176/2335-6618_3.2.50 ©The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access by GSTF 11