This is a 1913 picture of a Utah news reporter in the field. He’s a Salt Lake Telegram correspondent reporting on a manhunt. That’s not an oversized pencil under his arm. It appears more like a .30-.40 caliber Krag-Jorgensen carbine.
The reporter’s name is lost to time, but not the fact that, in addition to being a news gatherer, he also was an armed member of a Salt Lake County sheriff’s posse.
Another example of old-time police reporting is a 1922 Salt Lake Tribune announcement of the death of Phil J. Brady, a former police reporter for the Salt Lake Herald.