I am often asked questions about my job while out on assignment. One that comes up often is about our schedule.  Many people wonder if we are on call all the time and how we get our assignments. Here at the Post-Dispatch we are on shifts. The earliest one starts at 6:30 AM and the latest one starts at 1:30 PM with many in between. We rotate these shifts each month, so no one person is stuck working all nights shifts, all morning shifts, or all weekends.

This is a copy of our schedule from the beginning of the year. It has changed since then, new shifts have been added and switches have been made. But in general this is how it works. Each month everyone switches to the next shift on the list.

This month I am on the newly-made 6:30 AM shift. This shift covers all the breaking news that happened the night before as well as anything that happens that morning. The goal is to have at least one assignment in and up on the website by 8 am.

Here’s a run down of a typical day:
I start my morning by turning on the early news to see if they are reporting on anything. At 6:30 AM as my shift officially starts I call the online reporter Kim Bell (who has been working since 5:30 AM) to check if she has heard anything on the police scanner or knows of anything going on.  If there is something going on I hop in my car and head to the fire, car accident, shoot out, crime scene ect. If nothing is happening I get in my car and start cruising around with my scanner on ready to respond to anything that is called over. When you are on the morning shift you have no other assignments. Your job is to find and track down any and all news that is happening from 6:30 AM to about noon. Some days are jammed packed and others are quite slow. But one thing you can always count on is that no two days will be the same.

Here are a few of the events I’ve covered while on the morning shift:

Above-These first 3 photos are from my first day on the morning shift. I covered a fire at a business as my shift started and then a bank robbery later on that afternoon.

Above- I spent a whole day photographing the aftermath of the storm that hit Gillespie Illinois the night before.

Above- During one of my quieter days, I responded to a call over the scanner about a building collapse. Luckily no one was inside so I photographed the fire fighters securing the buidling.