“I got a tip that six pounds of cocaine was missing from an LAPD evidence locker,” Los Angeles Times reporter, Matt Lait, said. “They suspected it was an inside job and it was a cop.

So began the four years of tips, chases, leads and investigation that ended in the breaking of one of the biggest police scandals in recent history. Times reporters, Scott Glover and Matt Lait, had uncovered the Rampart scandal, a tale of unbelievable corruption that ran deep in the Los Angeles Police Department.

The reporters came to The University of Iowa during the week of March 29 as part of the Professionals in Residence program to discuss the scandal and the surrounding journalism issues with students.

When working on the Rampart scandal, Glover and Lait faced many issues concerning journalism ethics and the serious consequences their writing had for the city of Los Angeles.

Glover first learned how deep the scandal went when he received a tip from a police officer that a meeting was being held to discuss problems within the LAPD. Glover went to the meeting and did not make it known that he was a reporter.

“People say we look like cops and talk like cops,” Glover said of his ability to blend right in at the meeting.

After learning new and incriminating information on the LAPD’s anti-gang unit, such as officers planting evidence, threatening gang members and perjuring themselves, there was a clear problem for Glover and Lait.

“How do you deal with how you got this information?” Glover said. “At first, we just thought we’d appear omnipresent. Say we’re everywhere. But that was immature. That didn’t happen.”

After discussing the problem with editors, it was decided that full disclosure would be the best approach. “We said we were at a meeting where officers did not know a reporter was present,” Glover said.

Unfortunately, he said, “the full disclosure did nothing to stop the police chief from having a heart attack the next morning.”

The chief wrote a letter to the editor of the Times addressing what he addressing what he described as the reporters “reprehensible news gathering methods.”

Despite the LAPD’s negative commentary and unwillingness to cooperate, Glover and Lait kept pursuing the scandal until the entire story was exposed. According to Lait, in the end, nine officers were criminally charged and dozens fired. The police chief and the district attorney lost their jobs. The city of Los Angeles has paid out tens of millions of dollars in damages.

“I don’t feel like we brought them down in any way,” Lait said. “Their own activities led to their downfall.” Overall, Glover and Lait feel pride in the role they play in society as investigative journalists.

“I think our main motivation is the watchdog role in media. Someone needs to scrutinize public institutions and officials. You think, if no one was doing this, where would we be?” Glover said.

Writing and reporting stories on the LAPD teaches journalists to be persistent and to never back down from talking to potential sources, no matter who the person may be. Glover said he learned to talk to everyone and to realize that even police chiefs and powerful attorneys are just people too.

It doesn’t matter who the information needs to come from. It is the job of the investigative journalist to follow the leads until the necessary information comes forward.

“We love our job. We’re pursuing what we want. We don’t like to be told no,” Lait said. “If we don’t get it today we’ll get it tomorrow.” By Marla Griffin