Living the Cops Beat   

Pensacola, Florida, news anchor trades her press pass for an FBI badge.

Investigative crime reporter and morning news anchor Shauna Dunlap is trading in her press pass for an FBI badge. Known as ``Crime Dog" in the WEAR-TV newsroom in Pensacola, Florida, where she worked until August, Dunlap reports January 3 to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, for special agent training.
Dunlap, 28, who has covered the crime and courts beat for three-and-a-half years, says the two professions have common threads. As a reporter, ``you never know what you'll cover or uncover on a given day. It's the same with law enforcement. You're constantly learning. It's challenging and satisfying at the same time."
The difference, she says, is that a journalist reports what has already happened. ``That doesn't have as much of an effect as if you were working on a case and making arrests and getting criminals off the streets.... I wanted to do something I felt good about."
In the course of her reporting, Dunlap worked with law enforcement agencies, sometimes accompanying officers on ride-alongs, and with the FBI, where she caught the attention of George Schenck , supervisory special agent of FBI offices in the Florida panhandle.
After Schenck asked her in September 1997 to consider the FBI, Dunlap had to think about it for only two days before deciding to fill out the application. ``It all kind of made sense," she says. She went through a battery of tests and interviews before receiving official notice of her school date in November 1998.
Schenck says Dunlap's enthusiasm, energy, preparedness, follow-through and strong communication and interpersonal skills are valuable qualities for journalists and special agents.
She has received recognition for her journalistic work from several law enforcement agencies. And Dunlap says her crime reporting experience will work to her advantage as an agent. Plus, she has knowledge gained from attending a citizens law enforcement academy and criminal justice classes, and volunteering at a juvenile detention center.
Dunlap is both excited and nervous about her new career track. ``If I'm up against a guy who's 6 [feet] 2 [inches], I'll have a few butterflies in my stomach. But the FBI trains you," says the 5-foot-2-inch recruit.
She doesn't have any doubt that she'll stick with the FBI. But if for some reason she went back to doing news, Dunlap says, ``I would only be a better reporter after being an FBI agent."