Strategic Communication Practices

Strategic

Communication Practices:

A Toolkit for Police Executives

Darrel W. Stephens Julia Hill Sheldon Greenberg

Strategic Communication Practices:

A Toolkit for Police Executives

Darrel W. Stephens Julia Hill Sheldon Greenberg

This project was supported by a Cooperative Agreement 2008-CK-WX-K008 awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.

The Internet references cited in this publication were valid as of the original date of this publication. Given that URLs and websites are in constant flux, neither the author(s) nor the COPS Office can vouch for their current validity.

ISBN: 978-1-935676-41-6 September 2011

Contents

Contents

About the COPS Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Letter from the Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CHAPTER I--The Police Communication Imperative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Communications Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Police Effectiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Public Image and Perceptions of the Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Policing Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Police Misconduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Budget--Staffing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Terrorism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Immigration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Influencing Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Essential Audiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Elected Officials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Community Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Neighborhood Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Public Interest Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Non-English Speaking Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Faith Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Employees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Communication Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

CHAPTER II--Where and How People Get Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

The Media Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The Evolution of the Media in the Digital Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

How People Access, Use, and Disseminate Information . . . . . . . 24

Declines in Trust and Credibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Viewership, Readership, and Listenership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Print Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Radio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

The Online Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Where Do We Go from Here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

[ 1 ]

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download