05 creating authority

For this upcoming paper on police violence, I personally do not have much authority on the matter. I can speak for how an average person feels on the matter, and have the authority to do so. However, when it comes to talking about the police officers and statistics of acts of excessive force, I need to show proof from elsewhere. I've been looking up a lot of information on different government and police websites. All of this information is coming straight from the source so is much more reliable than say, an opinion piece on police violence from the huffington post. By using these direct sources, I am actually able to turn myself into an authority on this matter, because of the information that I am using that is coming straight from the horses mouth. It's not enough to simply have the facts though. By putting together all that I've found on the subject in a nice, neat, coherent manner, I'm able to actually create authority of my own. Maybe I'm not a police officer but if I can show that I am capable enough as a writer, then the people reading my paper will be more likely to believe and trust what I say. I think that over time, anyone can create authority for themselves by repeatedly proving that they are able to talk about a specific subject, and that what they're saying is true.