Police Crisis Management -- Craig M. Lifton

Fort Hood Police and Fire at the on scene Command Post.  Photo by Craig Lifton

         

             A police department, local, state or federal is not unlike any other government agency. The police are responsible to the public and their ability to police is directly connected to how the public perceives them. The police serve and protect the public. There very existence is dependent on the public trust. A crisis, according to Cameron, Wilcox, Reber and Shin in the Public Relations Today (2008), is a major event with a possibly negative outcome that can and or will affect the public or the organization.  The police need to have open lines of communication with the public but at the same time may need to withhold information if the event is ongoing or even after while the case is under investigation or pending trial. Only the larger police departments will have a whole public information section and only some medium to small departments have even a public information officer. During the crisis they will still need to do the following as recommended in Public Relations Today; put the public first, take responsibility, be honest, avoid saying no comment, use a single spokesperson, use a centralized information point, provide constant information, consider the news media and their needs, be accessible, monitor the news and all inquires, and keep open lines of communications with the public.

            When should a plan for crisis management be put into affect is a question needs to be answered by any public relations professional. The answer should be, before a crisis even starts. No one could have been prepared for such events as New York City 9/11 or here at Fort Hood on November 5^th, 2009, but with a plan there is something to work with. After the plan is put down on paper is should be tested in a realistic scenario. According to Connie and Michael Budden in Developing Crisis Management Skills Through a Realistic Case Scenario in the December edition of the Journal of Business Case Studies talk about how the current movement of business instructors are to put there students through realistic case scenarios with the goal to install skills for crisis management. In the article they point out how important it is for the organization to have a plan in place and to be prepared to put it into action. The Buddens use a police involved shooting as an example of very realistic crisis to help hone the skills of a public relations professional.

            The first thing any public relations should do during a crisis, is to think about the their public first. Are there immediate safety concerns that the public should be aware of or maybe actions they need to take to minimize loss that they should be informed about. Only facts should be released, information that can be confirmed and not possible information that will need to be retracted and corrected later. During the Fort Hood shooting information that one of the Fort Hood Police was dead was released, only to have to be corrected later. Also information that there was a possibility of multiple shooters was released to inform the public of a possible threat, this information was also incorrect and later retracted.  In Surviving Crises Begins With Preparing for the Unexpected (2010) by Penn in PRweek, he says “You can’t rebuild a house in the middle of a hurricane,” What he is saying that the damage is being done or is done and the fact there is a danger going on is understandable. After the crisis things can be corrected.  During the Fort Hood Shootings the public was advised that a situation was occurring and to close their doors and windows. Soldiers were instructed to stay put and to try to call their units to check in with them so they would know they were ok. Not a lot of information was being released immediately to the public but not a lot of things were known for sure. Some wanted to know what the police were doing and immediate operations of police should not be released so to protect the police from potential hostiles.  It is understood that news runs in a 24 hour cycle like Penn describes and that if a pubic relations person or team is not ready they will look like they are stumbling which can be costly to public trust.

            If the situation is one of a potential embarrassing event, the public relations should recommend that the police department leadership be both honest and to take responsibility for situation. Honesty will go a long way with the public. It will help the public know that the department has no intention to hide facts of the incident from them and will be truthful with any corrections that are made in the days to weeks coming after the incident. Being honest will help with the public when the department also takes responsibility if the incident had occurred due to the actions of one or few officers. Legal should be kept in the loop and recommendations should be acknowledged and considered during this according to the article Tip Sheet: 10 Principles of Effective Crisis Communications, as found in the 2008 issue of PR News. A organization may survive in the court of law but could lose in the court of public opinion.

            When all possible avoid saying the dreaded words, “NO COMMENT”.  If there is no current answer for that and that is what a public relations expert meant to say then maybe they could say something like, “hey that’s a good question, please give me your contact information and I will research that answer and get right back with you.”  Also explained in the article Tip Sheet: 10 Principles of Effective Crisis Communications, a no comment may lead the public into believing that they are being lied to or facts are being hidden from them.  A no comment will have 38% of the public thinking that an organization is guilty of something. During many crisis situations involving police departments it is not hiding the truth or facts to tell the public that the investigation is underway and there are no concrete facts to give out at that time. Public relations should be advising leadership to avoid saying no comment whenever possible. If a question about something that may interfere with operational security, then being truthful and letting the media or public know that is why there is no information releasable may be seen as being truthful.

            In a crisis a single voice can be a strong tool to help the public and maintain the public. Who should be that one voice? Should the Chief of police, or their equivalent depending on the agency, be that voice to the public? In the Tip Sheet: 10 Principles of Effective Crisis Communications it recommends that keeping to one voice will help with strong leadership and that the appointed representative should keep to key messages. Gidez and Lawrence in the 2010 PRweek article, Should a CEO be a Company’s Primary Spokesperson During a Crisis? talks about how a CEO of a company should only be the spokesperson if they can connect with the public and is liked by the public. A crisis should not be the first time that this leader be put in a position to communicate and must go preparation be made before any contact with the public and or media.

            To minimize confusion and to keep control of the message, during a crisis, pubic relations should maintain and enforce a single centralized information point. This will help with continuity for the media and the organization.  In Public Relations Today it is recommended that the location be convenient to the media. It needs to be easily reached in a minimal amount of time. Arrange to have enough chairs and room for photographers to work in. At Fort Hood the media location is nothing more then a part of the parking lot by the visitor control center. There a pavilion provides cover from the sun and rain with a backdrop wall with the name of the post and artwork representing the units assigned to Fort Hood. This keeps control of the media and restricting their access to the post but at the same time an easy to reach location for them.

            Keep in constant contact with the media and be sure to be accessible to them during the entire life of the crisis. According to Tip Sheet: 10 Principles of Effective Crisis Communications, people answering the phones, or what is called a telephone gatekeeper, they need to keep precise records of the incoming phone calls. The gatekeepers need to record the callers name, media connection, contact information, date and time called and any deadline information. Also these assistance needs to keep track of what and all information given to the media. News releases should be planned before being released. The news releases should be inline with what the organization needs to release and keep within the command message of the department. The news releases should have what corrective actions have been taken. The public relations team should also advise the public on any proactive and positive measures that being taken to correct the crisis. The news releases crafter by the public relations team should provide the public with important facts like contact phone numbers and answers to as many frequently asked questions as possible.

            The media has needs. They work in the world of news and in the times of cable news and the internet, the life of a news story is 24 hours a day. If the story is no longer news then no one is interested. This needs to be taken under consideration when dealing with the media. Goodman wrote in his 2010 article, In case of Emergency: What Not to do in thee New York Times he talks about the need of public relations to treat the media correctly. He gives the example how companies Toyota, British Petroleum and Goldman did not work well with the media and refused to be honest. These companies only made things worse with the public. The three companies should have disclosed the problem as soon as possible if not immediately. In Hemus’s Think the Unthinkable, he talks about how important it is not to send mixed messages so all involved should be on the same page of instructions on how to handle the news media. In the same note the media should be advised of what the rules will be while covering the crisis.  A personnel story I can share is that in the days following the Fort Hood Shootings I was assigned duties as a police officer that put me in close contact with important people and some times the media. On a day when several of the fallen were being transported by a military aircraft I found two members of a primetime news network who were somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. I came in contact with them and they tried to say they were authorized to be there. Well I noticed they were not being escorted, which is a requirement for the media on a military installation. I contacted the Public Affairs Media contact and was informed they were not supposed to be there. I informed them of the violation and had them escorted from the installation and back to the media holding area. The need for all media to be treated the same is very important when it comes to a government agency so not to spread conflicting messages and to keep all the media on the same level.

            Putting the message out is important, but how the message is being used is just as important or even more important. What if the receivers are not as receptive or don’t understand the message, could be a failure for public relations in a crisis. In the 2009 Examining a crisis communication void: The role of context to mitigate issues, in the Journal of Communication Management, white describe the need to analysis newspaper coverage. A need to look at the tone of the message the newspaper was relaying, what were the specific issues, who is quoted, what were the responses to the spokesperson. Putting out a message and forgetting it is a recipe for failure. In the absence of a good message it is know that the media will create their own crisis.

            All through out the life of the crisis, lines of communication with the public and media must be kept flowing. In the Tip Sheet: 10 Principles of Effective Crisis Communications, it is recommended to keep a very responsive and candid relationship with the media. This will build and maintain a good relationship with the news media. Public Relations needs to be very proactive with the media and not wait for them to contact them first if possible. Be wary of the off the record trap also. Nothing is ever really off the record. In the Examining a crisis communication void: The role of context to mitigate issues, it is discussed how the University of Tennessee miss handled a crisis involving their president. At the peak, public relations with media failed to be proactive with any strategic communications. This failure provided staff from inside the ability to feed the media on their own with negative information.

            The public will always remember how any organization handles not only the crisis but also itself during a crisis. If the public relations fumbles and never recovers, then their public will never forget and will show concern with not only the management, but also the entire organization. Once the public losses their trust in their public safety, the public no longer feels safe. It is understood that as the crisis event unfolds that immediate full disclosure may be difficult to perform. Good preparation before any crisis should be mandatory, prewritten news releases, list of media contact and standard operating procedures should be in place. Public relations should train with realistic scenarios with management to prepare for a crisis and to see where any weaknesses may be. These plans should include the following steps. Put the public first, they are who the police are responsible for the public safety. If at fault the law enforcement agency should take responsibility.  Be honest, once you lose the public’s faith it may never be recovered. Public relations should council all in the organization to avoid saying no comment, especially management and all involved. It is highly recommended to use a single spokesperson, I f possible management should be that single person to provide leadership during the crisis, and this spokesperson should be managed by public relations. Use a centralized information point, one that easily accessible to the media and maybe be able to control the media’s movement around in a crisis situation. Public relations needs to provide constant information, this will help the media and help inform the public of the status during the crisis. Public relations needs to consider the news media and their needs, in a crisis the media can be their greatest asset and their friend.  Public Relations needs to be accessible as much as possible, the life of the news about a crisis does not go to sleep in a 24 hour news world.  All through out the crisis and after, public relations will need to monitor the news and all inquires to ensure that the public is hearing their strategic communications. The police to keep the public involved and trusting their ability to serve and protect them must keep open lines of communications with the public.

References

Cameron, G., Wilcox, D., Reber, B., and Shin, J.  (2008) Public Relations Today.  Boston, MA,  Pearson Education, Inc.

Budden, C., & Budden, M.. (2010). Developing Crisis Management Skills Through A Realistic Case Scenario. Journal of Business Case Studies, 6(6), 131-134.  Retrieved June 5, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 2214591211).

Gidez, C., & Lawrence, M.. (2010, August). Should a CEO be a company's primary spokesperson during a crisis? PRweek, 13(8), 27.  Retrieved June 6, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry. (Document ID: 2166615801).

Goodman.  (2010, August 22). In Case Of Emergency: What Not To Do :[Money and Business/Financial Desk]. New York Times  (Late Edition (east Coast)),  p. BU.1.  Retrieved June 6, 2011, from Banking Information Source. (Document ID: 2116395091).

Hemus, J.. (2011, March). Think the unthinkable. PR Week: Crisis Busters,14.  Retrieved June 5, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry. (Document ID: 2324089461).

Penn, M.. (2010, November). Surviving crises begins with preparing for the unexpected. PRweek, 13(11), 26.  Retrieved June 6, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry. (Document ID: 2337114061)

Tip Sheet: 10 Principles of Effective Crisis Communications. (2008, July). PR News, 64(27.  Retrieved June 6, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1510627461).

White.  (2009). Examining a crisis communication void :The role of context to mitigate issues. Journal of Communication Management, 13(2), 176-190.  Retrieved June 6, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1866205051).