increase font size Commentary: The largest news agency in the US changes crime reporting practices to ‘do less harm and give people second chances’ By Maggie Jones Patterson, Duquesne University and Romayne Smith Fullerton, Western UniversityThe Conversation When suspects’ names appear in crime stories, their lives may be broken and never put back together. For years, people have begged The Associated Press, known as the “AP,” to scrub their indiscretions from its archives. Some of those requests “were heart-rending,” said John Daniszewski, standards vice president at AP who helped to spearhead the worldwide news service’s new policy. Acknowledging that journalism can inflict wounds unnecessarily, AP will no longer name those arrested for minor crimes when the news service is unlikely to cover the story’s subsequent developments. Often, such stories’ publication hinges on an odd or entertaining quirk, and the names are irrelevant. Yet, the ramifications can loom large and be long-lasting for the persons named.