Annotated Police Bulletins

It was a dark and stormy night...

As I prove here regularly, communicating in writing is harder than it looks. Editors are important because, given that they don’t reside in your head, they can tell you whether you’ve succeeded in your aim to convey information.

When you see police department press releases in the newspaper they’ve been vetted by professionals – editors with a command of the language, basic rules of grammar, and style. (No, FST doesn’t have an editorial department, thanks for asking). This doesn’t prevent the police from circumnavigating that process and putting their unedited releases directly online where any idiot can see them.

I am that idiot.