The media can provide a degree of external monitoring. Extensive investigative articles and consistent reporting when abuses arise have played a central role in generating pressure for reforms. For example, the Boston Globe provided extensive coverage of the police abuses surrounding the Stuart case, leading to the appointment of the St. Clair Commission; the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published consistent reports on the police department's inadequate investigation following a 1995 fatal shooting, and has reported its own difficulty in obtaining information from the police department about brutality investigations; the Philadelphia Inquirer has published investigative reports on that city's police force and its recent corruption and brutality scandals; the San Francisco Examiner published a 1996 series of articles on serious shortcomings in the official response to police shootings; and free weeklies in Chicago, Portland, and Washington, D.C. have published in-depth investigative articles about police abuse.

Still, newspapers or television news programs are not required to cover this issue, and informed reporters move on to other beats, taking their expertise with them and leaving police abuse issues under-reported. Journalists also face some of the same barriers to information encountered by attorneys and human rights monitors. In some instances, reporters cover high-profile cases without providing follow-up or context. Only when reporters cover police abuse consistently do they increase the public interest in the issue and the pressure on city and police officials to address brutality.