I can understand why police officers and state DNR officials have been puzzling over a case of a dead deer. Reporter Dave Phillips expanded on his story about the possibly poached deer today.

Both sides have different stories and it's confusing to get down to the truth. Both stories are confusing. The first one can be read here.

But here's what seems for sure:

The deer is dead. The deer is likely (based on being a 23-point buck) the one that went missing from the Troy nature center.

Citizens are the one who provided key clues to try to get to the truth of the matter.

For me, what's interesting is people's willingness to participate. And that's what we're focused on here at The Oakland Press.

We cannot report on all the interesting news in Oakland County. It's impossible. That's why our paper is trying its best to partner with the community.

In this story, someone reported seeing the dead deer. Someone else, a neighbor, took a picture of it. And later, a customer at a meat processing plant took a cell phone photo.

That's how easy it is for the community to participate.

And that's what we're doing, working with people who have information about events, take pictures of stuff going on, and shoot video of happenings. We will let you tell the story and share it with our readers, expanding a Citizen Journalism program started two years ago here.

Now we have partnered with bloggers in Oakland County. We will soon have the capability of having people post their own videos on our site. We let you publish your photos. We ask questions and rely on your tips. We want you to report what you see wrong in your community, whether by using our online tip box or posting something on our SeeClickFix map.

The only way to truly provide hyperlocal coverage of what's happening is to work with you and will continue to expand this. Next week, we will host a forum to discuss our next effort, The Ben Franklin Project. Check it out.