Trust is an interesting bonding agent – it’s strong enough to hold relationships together through difficult trials, yet so fragile that it can be shattered with a single utterance.

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson seems not to have taken that into consideration when he stepped up to the microphone at a July 9 press conference and lied to the press. In doing so, he lied to the citizens he serves too.

He justified the ruse by saying it helped law-enforcement officers find a suspected killer. But the sheriff was so focused on the outcome that he may not have understood the greater cost it came at.

“This is the first time in my 31 years that we’ve ever used the media as a tool to solve a homicide,” he said.

That flabbergasts and disappoints me: “Used the media as a tool.”

Here’s the scenario: A 38-year-old Fenton man was killed during what police believe was a meeting to sell used auto parts. Police had a suspect, a 29-year-old man, and their surveillance also informed them that the man was following media reports related to the investigation.

Swanson decided on this tactic: Go in front of the media, knowing the suspect was watching, and say police were stalled in the investigation, had no solid leads, no solid suspects. That, Swanson believed, would get the man to relax and come out of hiding, rather than fleeing.

Exactly two weeks later, the suspect, Omar Brogdan, was arrested during a traffic stop in the Detroit area. He now faces six felony charges in the shooting.

Swanson calls that a complete success.

I call that, the ends don’t justify the means. He got his man, but he tainted the well of public trust.

I hear from critics from time to time, labeling what we do “fake news” and saying they can’t trust the news media. But more often I get messages of thanks for the reliable coverage we provide of their communities. Readers over the years have told me in numerous ways they count on us to give them the information they need to make informed decisions.

Similarly, we count on our sources to provide us with accurate information, to the best of their ability in the moment. We fact-check what we can, but at some point we must take their word for it and trust they are doing their jobs honestly.

I’m not so naïve as to believe the media has not been or is not manipulated, that people don’t give us selective answers, or omit things, to shade the version of the truth they are providing. Nor am I talking about Russian bad actors or bots flooding social media channels.

I’m talking about the traditional bonds that have served our community news environment for hundreds of years. People working in good faith, on a basis of truth, for the common good.

I have an operating model that I’ve used throughout my management career: If an employee asks me about something, I will tell them what I know to the best of my ability, or I tell them I can’t tell them.

I wish Chris Swanson would’ve used that approach on July 9. In blatantly using us, he damaged his trust with us and the public, and he has damaged the credibility of the media with its audiences.

Galling to me, too, is that he already had a suspect, and had surveillance on the man’s activities. Other agencies, including state police and the FBI, were involved in the hunt. Did taking the extreme step of lying to the public at a press conference really lead to the arrest?

Sheriff Chris Swanson says it did. We’ll have to take his word for it.

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