In January 1989, an Hispanic police officer in Miami shot and killed a black motorcyclist in a predominantly black neighborhood of the city. As part of a larger study of police recruits' training and attitudes, researchers found that the extensive news media coverage of this event influenced the attitudes of Hispanic police recruits by altering their expectation that police officers would use their weapons while on duty. This effect was not found in non- Hispanic recruits. This findings suggests that criminal justice researchers should conduct a content review of local news media during data collection in criminal justice attitude studies. 3 tables, 16 notes, and 22 references