Police admitted it was not a good practice. Photo / AP
Police admitted it was not a good practice. Photo / AP
Maine State Police impersonated a journalist during a deadly standoff with a hostage taker when a TV news reporter received a call from the suspect and handed his cellphone to police.
WGME-TV's Taylor Cairns was shocked to receive the call Monday evening while at the scene of an armed standoffin Livermore Falls, Maine. He informed police who used the phone to continue a conversation with the suspect while posing as a reporter.
WGME-TV said it was alarmed and reached out to state police for answers. State Police Maj. Bill Ross called it an impromptu decision and a "unique circumstance" and acknowledged it was "not a good practice".
The hours-long standoff ended with the suspect, Donald White, dead and all three hostages safely released. White, 44, was shot by a trooper and took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities also found multiple explosive devices in the home.
Police posing as journalist sets a dangerous precedent that lead to blurred roles and an erosion of public trust in journalism, critics said.
The phone never should have been handed to police "without a warrant or other legal means of compulsion", Michael Socolow, a journalism professor at the University of Maine, told the Bangor Daily News.
Dan Kennedy, a professor of media ethics at Northeastern University, agreed that the incident "raises media ethics concerns" but recognised that "in-the-moment" decisions were required.
"You can see what a difficult situation everybody was in," Kennedy told the newspaper. "Lives were at stake here."
