Research has shown that crime news has consistently been listed as important in the lives of the United States citizenry and has diagnosed the relationship between the societal roles of law enforcement and media as "cool" or hostile. In an effort to review the perceived perceptions of law enforcement personnel to crime coverage, subjects, 299 law enforcement officers attending the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy, were given questionnaires. Initial findings revealed that law enforcement personnel could be grouped by their perceptions into three broad categories: (1) some officers (114) viewed the media as giving a distorted view of crime news and the law enforcement officer; (2) some officers (97) saw a societal value in crime coverage and urged cooperation despite problems in the newspaper's coverage of crime; while (3) other officers (88) felt there was a deliberate effort on the part of the reporter to discredit law enforcement and law enforcement personnel. However, findings also showed that officers believed that reporters would always stress the "public's right to know as a vital function of the news media and that this "right to know" outweighs any criticism levied against the media for its coverage or reporting techniques. For both the law enforcement and media fields the risk that must be accepted is that of working together for the common good of society. (Thirty-four references are appended.) (MS)