The Art of the "Perp Walk"

If you do not know, A "perp walk" is when a suspect is taken from one place to another and news cameras are there to shoot that movement.

For example: when an inmate is taken to the Taylor County Court House from the jail (as they often are) when they have a proceeding in one of the court rooms.

The walk from the Sheriff's Department's transport vehicle to the door of the court house is usually a good time for me to get a good perp walk, if I know when that walk will be taking place.

Getting a good perp walk is all about timing, and when we are trying to get a perp walk at the court house you have to time it just right.

First, you have to know when the suspect you are trying to get a perp walk of is going to court.

Once you find that out, which is a process in itself, you can count on the sheriff's department to get that person to the court house 15 to 20 minutes before the scheduled time they are to appear before a Judge.

Now, that would be a good time to get the perp walk, but as the Cops and Court Reporter for KTAB, I cover lots of crime, and there are lots of perps (perpetrators).

There are so many I may not remember what the person I am there to get video of looks like, so what I often have to do is go upstairs on the fourth floor of the court house where all the court room are, and sit through proceedings (this also gives me a chance to get more information on a case).

Once the perp I am there to get video of stands before the judge, I am in the court room to see what he or she looks like.

Now, comes the tricky part.

When the perp is done in the court room they often are there with a group of other inmates, and I have to wait till all the inmates are done with their proceedings so they can be taken back to the jail as a group.

Now remember, we are all on the fourth floor of the court house, so what I do is, when I see the Sheriff's Deputies start to take the group of inmates to the elevator to take them back down to the transport vehicle, I run down four flights of stairs, go to my vehicle, get my camera and hopefully I can do all that in the time it takes Deputies to get inmates in the elevator and down to the first floor of the court house and into the vehicle to go back to the jail.

If I time It just right it usually works out.

Today I had to get three perp walks at the court house: Jennifer Ignont, Alehandro Meyer, and George Pence Jr, and had to run up and down four flights of steps twice to get all three perp walks, which took place one right after the other.

The only thing that saved me was they were all in the same court room.

There are four court rooms on the fourth floor of the court house, and it is a whole other story when I am covering more than one person in court at the same time, in more than one court room.

In that case, a perp walk is more about luck than timing.