You cover the justice beat, which requires you to dig for stories. Talking with people you learn about trends, policies or investigations coming up that may be important to your beat. Having multiple layers of sourcing is important in terms of making sure you have the proper context. You don't want to just talk to people in one rung in one department. You want to talk to people at various levels to get the most complete picture of a situation.
Justice stories are typically very complex nuance pieces that require a lot of work.
You were a Metro writer before you covered the justice beat. I just developed sources in the building. I developed sources in law enforcement, many of which I had developed over time covering the FBI, local police. If people know that you are serious and that you take the time to be knowledgeable in a subject, that always helps. You have to meet people, tell them what you're doing, what your reporting style is.