On Thanksgiving, reporter Billie Stanton Anleu of The Gazette in Colorado Springs tweeted about local snowfall and pie eating.

A day later, as an emergency was underway in her city, she became the focus of a discussion among journalists about ethical social media coverage of police response to a live shooter incident.

In a stark departure from a voluntary guideline followed by many newsrooms, Anleu — backed by editor Joanna Bean — live-tweeted police dispatches transcribed from a law enforcement radio scanner.

Although anyone can monitor those publicly aired conversations, news media typically don’t broadcast or post them in real time to avoid compromising police tactics. “Use or broadcast of scanner traffic raises ethical questions such as how to carefully balance the public’s right to know against the potential for disclosing tactical movements designed to keep the public safe,” a trade group called the Radio Television Digital News Association advises members. “It is best to check with your in-house or outside counsel before you broadcast scanner traffic.”

An ethics code adopted by the Society of Professional Journalists addresses this topic indirectly:

Journalists should balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort.

As events unfolded Nov. 27 in Colorado Springs, Denver anchor Kyle Clark of KUSA, an NBC affiliate, tweeted to Gazette editor Joanna Bean:

Please make @stantonanleu stop. Your reporter is putting lives in danger.

The newspaper executive replied six minutes later:

We are reporting from scanner in effort to provide updates to the public.

Clark’s reacted:

I don’t have any response to the editor of the @csgazette that wouldn’t get me fired.

The TV newsman also directed his 30,500 Twitter followers to the feeds of two “trustworthy, ethical” reporters — Eric Singer of the Gazette and Trevor Hughes of USA Today.

“Folks, activity happening. I’m not tweeting it for security reasons,” Hughes tweeted later.

For her part, Anleu continued a rapid-fire series of 40 tweets for 78 minutes at her personal feed about police locations, operations, frustrations and plans. She has fewer than 300 followers, a number that surely rose as word of her activity spread among critics and curious users of the social platform.

Here are samples of what the Colorado journalist and her editor see as an appropriate “effort to provide updates to the public:”

chatter: We’re on the hill west of King Soopers. We’re on top of Chase Bank. Third floor window to the north — might be shooter We’re just going to have you ram the front of that bldg when we tell you to. OK? Ram the front? Can’t confirm where shooter is, don’t know whether 1 or 2. — Lt. Buckley RADIO: Can’t tell you if he’s still inside bldg. Maybe in the ceiling or on the roof if he’s still inside bldg.

The reporter’s flow then stopped as the holiday weekend situation remained active into the evening. After a tweeting lull of an hour and 40 minutes, Anleu resumed with an odd one:

Sensitive tactical operations underway past hour; tweets will resume when they’ve annihilated the shooter.

Five people criticize her language choice in tweet replies.

Clark, the Denver anchor, also reacts:

A very sincere thank you to @csgazette @jolbean @stantonanleu for no longer tweeting tactical movements.

[ Note: ] I invited comments from Anleu and Bean the editor, via email and Facebook messages. Any reply will be added.

Updates:

A TV anchor-reporter in Flint, Mich., Dave Bondy, tweets in response to this post: “It is not ok to tweet tactical details. Common sense. #officersafety” Dylan Smith, an editor and publisher, comments on Facebook: “I worked with Billie for years [at the Tucson Citizen]. She’s one of the most ethical journalists I know.”