Mr. Curry.

No, sir.

Mr. Mccloy.

You don't take normally any tape recordings of witnesses' examinations?

Mr. Curry.

No, sir.

Mr. Mccloy.

I guess that is all, except the general question I have of Chief Curry. Do you know anything else with respect to this whole matter that you think would be of any help to this Commission in getting at the facts?

Mr. Curry.

Not that I know of, except to say we were extremely sorry that, of course, this thing happened in Dallas. We thought we were taking every normal precaution that we could take to insure the safety of the President in cooperating with the Secret Service and all other agencies and we felt like we had done a good job.
After the assassination and the murder of our officer, that our officers had done a good job in making a quick apprehension of the alleged person guilty of this, and that we will have to admit that although we thought that adequate precautions had been taken for the transfer of this prisoner, that one of our officers momentarily stepped away from his post of duty, and that during this moment of negligence on his part, as far as we could determine Ruby went down the ramp, the Main Street ramp, and concealed himself behind some news media and detectives and as Oswald was brought out he stepped forward and shot him.
And if we had it to do over again, and I think this, that some policy should be set up for the news media, whereby if anything of this magnitude ever occurs again, that we would not be plagued by the confusion present that was present at that time, and that the news media should accept some of the responsibility for these things and agree among themselves to have representatives that can report back to them.

Mr. Rankin.

Chief Curry, I am not quite clear about the situation with regard to your practices in the police force, and the news media. I understand what happened, as you described it at the time of the episodes that we have been going into, and I understand that you would, if there was a matter of this magnitude again--you would expect and want a very different change?

Mr. Curry.

Yes.

Mr. Rankin.

And eliminate the interference by the news media?

Mr. Curry.

That is right.

Mr. Rankin.

But what do you do now about the ordinary case? Have you changed your practices about the media at all?

Mr. Curry.

Not the ordinary cases; no.

Mr. Rankin.

And do they use the radio and TV in the police headquarters?

Mr. Curry.

Yes, sir; they do.

Mr. Rankin.

And they, the reporters, come in, and it is just the difference between a great many?

Mr. Curry.

And a few is what made the difference in this.

Mr. Mccloy.

Do you permit reporters now to come in and interrogate prisoners as they did in this case by holding a microphone up to their mouth and saying, "How did you do it?"

Mr. Curry.

They do the same as they do here; on the way from the interrogation room to the jail elevator as they pass by they might run along and ask him questions and try to get him to answer.

Mr. Rankin.

That could be done today just the same?

Mr. Curry.

Yes, sir. Because we have no way of keeping them out of the public halls.

Mr. Rankin.

Don't you have jurisdiction as chief of police to exclude them if you thought it was the wise thing to do?

Mr. Curry.

Yes. Now if I had it to do over again, of come, I would exclude it.

Mr. Rankin.

And you could do it today in the ordinary case if you wanted to?

Mr. Curry.

I would probably have my hide taken off by the news media, but I could do it.

Mr. Rankin.

So, it is really a problem of weighing what the media will do to you against other considerations?

Mr. Curry.

And this, too; it seemed like there was a great demand by the general public to know what was going on.