Most cops think most stories reporters are interested in are crap and turn the extraction of information into an intellectual taffy-pull. Most editors think remarkably like cops when it comes to valuing a crime story and thus must be pitched like 1940s housewives opening the door to a vacuum-cleaner salesman. Even a murder is not news ipso facto these days. Unless the victim is prominent, the perpetrator noteworthy, or the means of death baroque, a tag on your toe no longer is a ticket to page one. We are losing, or have already lost, the war on drugs.
Cops hate their commanders, maybe more than they hate criminals.
Blau does a good job explaining why. Therefore . . . Police reporters cannot succeed without making friends and establishing trust within the department. Even the best reporters get co-opted. Or maybe even a hug.