Do police detectives actually have to deal with reporters stalking them?

Yes and no.

There ARE laws to prevent this, and the movies and such simply ignore those laws.

AND, the police are well trained to simply ignore such requests. Whre I live, both teh State and Local [polcie department have a special Spokesperson departmetn, which handles ALL requests for information from the press. The standard rank-and-file police officer simply says, "You need to talk to Sgt. John Doe for more information". In this way, the information is limited to three or four people who all tell the same story, releasing ONLY that information that is "suitable" to the case.

in my state, and newspaper and/or re[port that "leaks" information which jeopardizes a case will bne prosecuted under "Interfering with a police investigation" laws, and around here the State and Local DA's make it stick! This law applies to reporters, editor, and newspaper owners!

Not slithering out of the bushes, unless you are accused of something.

They call a lot, they try to get bosses, who are not your boss but who owe them, to get you to comment.

Most try never to talk unless ordered to because we all learn quickly that anything you say will be turned against you or used improperly. They always blame the editor and show you the correct quote in there notebook.

When they do stuff liek hide or come to your home or try to talk to your kids as they leave school it is because they think they found something bad about you.

Happened to one of our guys. He was accused by a couple of torture murderers of beating them out of a confession.

So the reporter does all this stuff and makes a lot of accusations. Lucky There was a video, unknown to the reporter and it cannot be released until after trial.

So now, 1.5 years later, trial is over and the video was shown and is given to all of the news outlets

Any apologies, no. The guy just says, in ambushing children, that he was just doing his job.

His bosses at the NBC outlet actually run adds about what a great job the guy does as an investigative reporter.

Not very often in real life.