While you don't have to cite every source of data or create a research paper with bibliography and footnotes, it is important to cite any experts you quote and to credit published reports from which you take data. Add just a few resources and citations if they are available. For example, if you are writing about prostitution in your city, add some statistics about prostitution in general.

Nationally, police departments are estimated to spend approximately 40 percent of their budgets on enforcing prostitution laws. It is time-consuming police work, requiring in many cases that officers pair up, obtain a solicitation form, and make an arrest of a suspected prostitute. Then they have to transport the woman to the police station or jail, complete fingerprinting and identification, write and file a report, and testify in court. Teams of police officers in other cities are estimated to spend twenty-one officer hours on each prostitution arrest. (“Prostitution Control Costs,” Hastings Law Journal, April, 1987.)

Be sure when you cite national statistics to link them to the case in your own community. In the above example, you might say: “Here in City, State, the police department receives no special budget allocation for battling prostitution. Instead, it works with courts, social-service agencies, and others to share and reduce costs. It has also streamlined the arrest process to reduce the amount of time officers spend completing paperwork. Last year's 300 arrests cost the city only $10,000 (after fines were paid); police officers spent approximately fourteen hours per arrest.”