On Tuesday, I got an email from the Portland Police Bureau’s information officer, Brian Schmautz, looking for “two or three media folks” to talk to a Sergeant’s Academy about media relations and crime scenes.

The Sergeant’s Academy is for newly promoted sergeants. Participants may be blunt and could be critical of your profession. On the other hand, it is an opportunity to let them hear from you first hand.

I wrote back, telling Brian I would love to attend, and that the blunter the officers, the better. It’s much better to have honest conversations with police officers about the media, than to have them be terrified of talking to us. So if they want to call me names, then brilliant. If they want to throw stuff at me, great! I’ll even challenge any of them to a donut-eating contest. But I’m yet to hear back. SGT: “Blunt, critical.”

Some officers feel journalists are out to trip them up, criticize them unfairly, or that we’re parasites. I can’t speak for other reporters, but what I’m really trying to do? Fairly scrutinize the people who carry guns as part of the way they make a living, and give them a chance to respond. I only carry a pen—it’s not deadly. Just a little blunt and critical, on a good day.