Six officers from New York City were standing around the tent camp in Haiti. Several questions later, the reporter I was working with had his first scoop.I generally reserve Tuesday mornings to work with Louis-Jean Olivier, a young journalist with the Haiti Press Network. Although Olivier had been studying journalism at the State University, he didn’t start working as a reporter until after the January earthquake, when on a fluke he ended up filing a story for HPN. He so impressed HPN’s owner that he was hired on the spot and has been working for the agency ever since.

One particular Tuesday, Olivier needed to interview a camp manager at Corrail Cesselesse, the ‘model’ tent camp that has turned out to be anything but. I offered to drive Olivier to the 5,000-tent site, which is inconveniently located along the main road to the north, far from public transportation. It was the first time in two months we had a chance to talk in a relaxed manner about the need for Haitian journalists to take the lead on stories involving their country, and the impact such information can have in affecting change. It was a prescient conversation without our knowing it.

At the camp, Olivier noticed a half dozen police officers wearing NYPD uniforms, hanging around the long, endless rows of white battered tents laid out at the base of an eroded bank of mountains. It’s not unusual to see foreign police – they have been here as part of the many United Nations missions that have been deployed in Haiti on and off for 20 years. But NYPD uniforms are rare. Olivier smelled a story and immediately went to speak with the officers.

All six Haitian-Americans, he discovered, had volunteered to come to Haiti on a three-month rotation following an invitation President Rene Prèval extended to NYPD chief Ray Kelly when he was here August 3 with David T. Johnson, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affair. Kelly sent the officers less than three weeks later.

 But since their August 23 arrival, the New York officers’ hands had been tied because the Haitian government had yet to sign an accord authorizing them to work with the Haitian National Police. Olivier posted a piece about this on HPN on October 7.

It may have been a coincidence, or maybe not, but one week later, U.S. ambassador Kenneth Merten and Minister of Justice and Public Security Paul Denis signed an agreement authorizing the NYPD to work with the HNP, training them in such areas as dealing with kidnappings, gathering evidence and working to dismantle gangs in camps in the capital.

Olivier may not be able to take direct credit for the signing of the accord, but there’s no reason to believe that his story wasn’t the gas that got the motor moving. It was his first scoop and my first real success with the journalists I’ve been mentoring in investigative reporting. We both hope it is the first success of many more to come.