When "The Wire" gained popularity in Great Britain, we were contacted by a London-based journalist who proposed a job swap. Mark Hughes, a crime reporter with
The Independent, a national newspaper in the United Kingdom, wanted to come to Baltimore to see if the city’s police officers, drug dealers, prosecutors and politicians bore any resemblance to those on show. We agreed to complete the exchange by sending our police reporter, Justin Fenton, to London to compare crime trends. We’ll publish some of their work in the print edition of
The Sun, and more observations will be available here.
Local media coverage
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105.7-FM The Fan: The Ed Norris Show
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WBFF Fox45: London Reporter Greeted with Crime - John Rydell
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WAMU 88.5-FM: "The Wire" Inspires Trans-Atlantic Reporter Exchange
An American in London
Justin Fenton has covered crime for the
Baltimore Sun for five years, in suburban counties and Baltimore City. His award-winning work has included coverage of the Amish schoolhouse slayings in Lancaster, Penn.; a 16-year-old boy who executed his parents and two brothers in their sleep; a three-part series about the odyssey of a female serial con artist; and a small town’s crippling baseball stadium deal with a hometown athlete.
Justin's articles from The Baltimore Sun
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Crime and race: A different world (November 27)
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Britons reject likening crime levels to Baltimore's (December 7)
A Brit in Baltimore
Mark Hughes is the crime correspondent for
The Independent newspaper in Britain, a national daily based in London. He has covered the goings on at Scotland Yard, and further afield, since 2008. Previous to that he was the paper’s north of England reporter, working from Manchester. He joined
The Independent in 2007 after three years working on a regional newspaper in Carlisle.
Mark's articles from The Independent
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Just minutes after I arrived, I was at the scene of a shooting ... (November 7)
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189 homicides this year – this is The Wire, only real (November 9)
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The trials of 'Baltimore's Boris' (November 10)
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'Wire' star joins real fight against crime (November 11)
