When The Frederick News-Post runs a police story on the front page (or a fire, or a car crash), single-copy sales increase.

At fredericknewspost.com, the fire and police blotter is consistently a most-read feature. When it's not at the top of the list, some other tale of misfortune has usually bumped it to second.

Folks tell us they want to read good news, but everyone gravitates toward the bad stuff.

And that includes newspaper folks.

I have to be honest. We get excited when we hear a big call come over the scanner, just the way most folks get excited when they hear sirens or see flashing lights. We know it's probably something bad, but interesting.

The tough part can be finding out what happened.

We sometimes get a call or an e-mail from someone who saw lots of emergency vehicles parked along a road somewhere in the county. The person wants to know what was going on -- and why it wasn't in the paper.

Here are the possibilities:

n It was nothing. Police and fire and rescue send out a certain number of vehicles based on a phone call to 911. Those vehicles are not always needed, but it's better to send them than have to call them later. Sometimes the drowning man in the river turns out to be a rock.

n We were covering something else. Everyone has to prioritize, even newspapers. We try to be everywhere; we don't always succeed.

n It was something we don't report on. For instance, we don't cover suicides unless they occur in a public place or the person was famous. We don't generally cover incidents where no one was hurt, nothing was damaged and no charges were filed.

n We don't know, but we'll find out. Our scanner doesn't pick up the Frederick Police Department, so in the city we rely a lot on press releases and calls from curious people. Sometimes there's no one near the scanner when an interesting call comes in (though we have at least one photographer who seems able to sleep and hear the scanner simultaneously). If you give us a time, a location and some information on which police agency was on the scene, we are happy to check it out.

n We don't know and no one will tell us. We can't report on a crime, fire, collision or other emergency without information from authorities. Usually we can get that information. Occasionally, we can't.

A group of News-Post reporters met recently with representatives of the local Maryland State Police barrack, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office, the Frederick Police Department and Frederick County Fire and Rescue. Just about all our reporters have to cover the cops beat once in a while, so we figured a Q & A would be beneficial.

Some of what we heard was helpful, some of it was frustrating, but the overall message was clear. Police and emergency agencies want to control what we do and what we report.

They have some good reasons for this.

First is safety; they may not all love reporters, but they don't want to see us get hurt. Second is their work; they don't want to endanger people they are trying to help or compromise their ability to catch a criminal just so we get a story. Third is efficiency; it drives us crazy but, rather than answering questions over the phone, most agencies prefer to find out what we're asking about then send a press release to their whole list of media outlets.

So much for getting a scoop.

If we don't call and ask about an incident, the agencies have different policies on press releases. At the sheriff's office, spokeswoman Jennifer Bailey looks at the deputies' reports and decides which to issue releases on. With 400 to 600 calls per weekend, she relies on others in the agency to let her know what rates a release.

City police issue a release on any open investigation and every arrest except traffic offenses (this helps answer the frequently asked question about why marijuana arrests are in the paper and DUIs are not). On public safety issues, city police always put out a release.

If a reporter wants to look at an officer's incident report, that reporter must file a Public Information Act request and wait up to 30 days. Certain information may be edited out.

When a reporter shows up on the scene of a crime or emergency, officials prefer the reporter to find the incident commander, then go wait in a designated area. Needless to say, this is not the best way to get a well-rounded story.

So we bump elbows a bit, but most of us try to work together while getting our own jobs done. The officials who visited The News-Post gave thoughtful answers and said they want to work with the paper. We believe them. As long as we can get the story, we'll stay on our side of the yellow tape -- unless we get there before the tape goes up.