I’ve been reading a lot, in the news and in emails from friends, about how budget cutbacks are affecting law enforcement agencies. One friend up in Massachusetts told me that too few cops were working shifts with too many calls. Backup isn’t always there when officers need it, and the tension is wearing on everyone’s…
Category Archives: Reputation management
Guest post: The social-traditional media balance
Sgt. Tim Burrows, of the Toronto Police Traffic Services, doesn’t just think about “being on social media”—he thinks in terms of communication, the best ways to get his messages across. That’s why his mix of professional and personable is one of the best examples I’ve seen of how to “get” using social media. Which is…
Tell them why, and the how comes naturally
Gen. George Patton’s quote has been one of my favorites since I was in Air Force ROTC, and it came to mind again tonight as I was being interviewed for a podcast. “Inside the Core” producers Dave Melvin and Chris Curran, who (along with partners Reggy Chapman and Ryan Kubasiak) are computer forensic examiners specializing…
What, exactly, is the standard?
My commenters on the last post got me thinking: police departments (and other professions) demand officers hold themselves to a “higher standard” of conduct. So what’s that standard? What does it mean? How are officers expected to know where the lines are? The “higher standard” is subjective These are not easy questions to answer. Young…
Just how high does the standard need to be?
Thinking about the Bozeman officer who resigned over his Facebook status updates made me think: What, exactly, do we civilians expect from our police officers? Because I’ve heard comments along the same lines from dozens of other cops. Civilians, too. Take this one from one of my own Facebook friends: “….I suffer fools not at…
Guest post: The social media officer
When Mike Vallez launched his social media blog a few weeks ago, I was struck by a comment he made in one of his first posts: “I would venture to guess that in the future you will have a social media police officer or many social media police officers that will be involved in “the…