Good police relations crucial

If she was ever to anger cops with her work, Gerda Jezuchowski would not want to hear about it “around the traps”. The Channel 10 police reporter would much prefer a cop to tell her directly that he or she felt aggrieved. And, be it a charge of misrepresentation, or plain errors in one of her stories, the diminutive 25-year-old stands ready to be accountable.

She actually invites police, who appear in her reports, to offer their feedback. To some, she even makes next-day phone calls to “check what they thought”. But none has ever questioned the integrity of her final, on-screen product.

Jezuchowski attributes the absence of criticism to her practices in the field. “I do make sure that they (police) understand what my view is before the story goes to air,” she explains.

“I’ll sort of say: ‘So what you mean by this is...?’ If they agree, then, generally, you know you’re going to be putting across an accurate report.”

And the Jezuchowski approach seems to engender the good relations she insists are crucial to her police round. She is certain that, without them, she would hit a brick wall “every time I went to do a story”.

No doubt Jezuchowski also benefits from the broad-scale relations - which she sees as generally good - between police and the media. But she remembers a strain in the relationship when SAPOL adopted the GRN, which blocked reporters from scanning police radios.

“That put a bit of pressure on the relationships in general,” she says. “We went through a difficult time.

“I didn’t see the sense in letting it be a sticking point, and certainly the police - particularly the police media unit - have tried to accommodate us.

“You have to get out there and kind of meet people yourself, so, in that sense, I think the relations are working pretty well.”

But, while relations might seem in order, the job for Jezuchowski still comes with hardships. Her deadline, for example, becomes especially tough to meet when, for good reason, police release information on a crime in only a trickle.

This necessary tactic frustrates Jezuchowski, who has to meet an earlier deadline than those of her counterparts. She appreciates, however, that police at times have to limit the flow of information to ensure the integrity of their investigations.

She also appreciates that cops themselves have one of society’s toughest jobs. “We’re often out there shivering with the police at late-night crime scenes, and running through scrub chasing people with them,” she says.

“But (the police) having to be the ones who knock on doors and go in... there is a sense of courage and risk-taking about that. These are people who are on the front line protecting our community. The average person, I don’t think, could jump in and do what police do.”

The police handling of an Adelaide Hills shooting, which Jezuchowski watched from the Channel 10 chopper just last month, also impressed her. She relished her chance to record the action and relay it to the public.

And, after covering hundreds of other police stories in only a few years, she has come to see cops as highly responsible people, willing to be accountable for their actions. Not lost on her, either, are their coping mechanisms and “dry senses of humour”.

So, with a healthy respect for cops, Jezuchowski takes a careful approach to the way she interacts with them on the job. She knows when to “hang back” at a busy major-crime scene, and when to press for the newsworthy information she seeks.

“I think when police see that media are putting in the hard yards out there with them, they’re perhaps more receptive to chatting to you about what’s going on,” she says.

While Jezuchowski loves her work, she concedes that, as a child, she did harbour “a bit of an interest” in police work as a career. But, curious as she was about “the other side of society”, she was far more certain that she wanted to work in journalism.

A former Annesley College girl, Jezuchowski earned a degree in journalism at the University of SA in 1999. She scored her first job as a reporter and presenter with regional broadcaster Central Television in Port Pirie, where she worked for 18 months.

She then joined an Adelaide network, with which she remained for two-and-a-half years, before she moved to Channel 10 just five months ago.

When Jezuchowski began to cover police stories, during her second job, she developed an instant love of them. “I’ve always been curious about crime and the criminal aspect of things,” she says.

“At this point in my career, I wouldn’t want to do anything else. It’s been intriguing to know how policing works; and, learning about it is, for me, part of the thrill.”