On November 19, 2008 the Montgomery County Police Reporter came to life. Jamie Nash, a long time reporter saw a need in this county for better coverage of police and fire events. Scott Engle who has been involved in television news since 1976 made many scenes throughout the county. Most of these scenes were not quite newsworthy to Houston news but was to Montgomery and surrounding county residents. Many videos and photos were just filed away, stories only to be seen by a computer hard drive.
The first story came to life Lake Conroe Fire Department responded to a commercial fire on SH 105 west at 11:15 a.m.. It hasn’t slowed down yet and we try to keep up with covering the entire county. Twenty-four hours a day, 7-days a week.
Then on April 6, 2011, after many requests, a hard copy of the newspaper was sent to press and is published every Friday. Distributed through many merchants throughout the county is details the highlight stories of the week, featured fugitives, arrests over the past week and is supported by many local businesses. Yesterday issue number 32 was distributed to the vendors. Even with Thanksgiving next week a paper will still be available on Friday.
The support of the community has also been great. Many tips coming through our Montgomery County Police Reporter Facebook page. We try to work on those tips as quick as possible. With just two people and the breaking news events in the county sometimes make it difficult in a short time frame that people would expect out of large metropolitan newspapers.
In the coming year we are looking at several new things. First is to redesign the website. It had originally been set up as just a blog but grew much beyond that and was limited in it’s capabilities. Another think was many have asked about older stories. As time permits, videos and photos with stories will be posted. Some are Houston stories which I still shot before being assigned to Montgomery County for video coverage in 2003 including the 16 days of Katrina that I covered, Rita, Ike, Galveston Causeway demolition, dramatic rescue by fire fighters in 2005 when Copperwood Apartments caught fire. As flames consumed the building firefighters on the third floor rescuing elderly residents of balconies and carrying them down ladders. The Porter hotel fire, and much more.
We are also open to suggestions by our readers.
We thank you for your continued support and look to continue serving Montgomery and surrounding counties.
LINK TO OUR VERY FIRST STORY-CLICK HERE
LINK TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE REPORTER BY MAIL
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