American police departments have a media relations problem, and that problem is not limited to the various accusations and successions of distrust and conflict associated with police brutality and racial bias. Their problem goes to the heart of wearing a uniform –representative of a section of the government that can exercise a significant amount of power over citizens—while engaging in public rhetoric of a subjective, opinionated, redacted nature. Greater transparency could help this problem. I will contend that police department public information mechanisms should be akin to the PI doctrine of military organizations due to their nature as a powerful organization with tremendous influence.

The Waco Police department is struggling with its communication mechanism, drifting ever so closely to a closed off organization with little feedback and a diminishing level of improvement capability. This study presents the Waco public information efforts against the guiding principles of military public affairs and therefore concludes that the Waco PD should expand its community relations programs, draft and implement public affairs research based policy, drastically improve its website to be more user friendly as to encourages two-way communication with the Waco citizens, as part of a method combat to bias in all police operations.

OPEN VS. CLOSED_Part IV

ROZEAN:
So, the way we are going to end up looking at things here is, the way things should be, compared with the way things are with the Waco PD’s public information mechanisms. When one considers a systems-theory analysis, an open system is preferable to a closed, since an open system has all the information available to it, to make better decisions – making use of feedback to improve the system product. And since it is open, and therefore fosters the six universal values, it nurtures trust and the information then becomes more available and the product becomes better. This graphic demonstrates an open public information system. As you can see it is a cycle, a process, where information is used, applied, and recycled. It is a sharing process based upon those six universal values. And it is a two-way communication that is the typical sender-receiver mechanism –a model that goes back to the days of Plato.

ROZEAN:

While the open public information system is a process, the Waco PD’ public information system is nothing like that at all – and it is very lacking on the quote “public” aspect of the term, and ends up just being information, without the adjective. It is a hierarchy, where the police see themselves as a powerful, justified, and almost a somewhat more righteous then thou, divine force over the citizens – or at least certain types of citizens that they are biased against serving. Some Wacoans are better than others in their book. They see it in such a way that the citizens should just follow their every order barked – listen and respect, regardless whatever information is coming inward from sources external to the Waco PD closed system. The community relations aspect is best demonstrated through pictures of officers with certain types, and colors, of children and citizens. And there is therefore a shadow over certain types of groups that the Waco Police Department is biased against, and favors certain groups over others. And their media relations campaign is misleading and based upon organizational mythologies. And there appears to be this egotistical idea that the people should just believe just whatever it is that they say and bark. And when the citizens don’t believe it and when they question them, they get all red faced and upset. This is a system based upon misleading information and half-truths that every member of the Waco PD may or may not believe whole heartedly, and whether or not  they do is irrelevant. The fact is that the organization still operate on these systems and methods from day to day. And is therefore a powerful characteristic of the organization.

Trying to remain unbiased...but we have an instance of total bias, which proves possible bias

COMMUNITY RELATIONS_Part III

ROZEAN:

Now let’s turn this discussion over to community relations. I have mentioned before that where this discussion has ended up is very troubling. However, this is no one’s fault other than the Waco PD’s choices in communication policies and methods. Within the previous parts of this exercise, I have sited both civilian and military doctrine that preaches the avoidance of any sort of bias. And I have pointed out that in the information world, bias doesn’t have to be clear cut proof. It only has to be perceived to have an undesirable effect on one’s organizational brand.

ROZEAN:

I cited a Baylor University study that showed that over half of the African Americans in Waco perceived a bias against them by the Waco PD’s operations. I also demonstrated a bias that the Waco PD had whenever they broker their steadfast rule of publishing mug shots on their Facebook account whenever news worthy arrest involved one of their police officers. I also demonstrated how the word choices made by the Waco PD public information officer plus the cookie cutter arrests of 200 bikers while the civilians, quote “civilians” and quote “families,” and the workers at the restaurant were let go, which also demonstrates a clear bias toward a certain group. I also demonstrated how the blame-the-breastaurant was a scapegoat used by the Waco PD’s public information efforts, or was is a scapegoat, or was it a bias against Twin Peaks and in favor of Twin Peak’s restaurant competition who would have loved to see the competition go away. Because in the aftermath, the Twin Peaks restaurant would be taken out of the Waco restaurant’s capitalistic competition market. Most of these are very clear biases demonstrate by the evidences of the previous sections. However, a small portion are more perceived bias than actual. But as I have said, in the public information world those things don’t matter. So based upon this evidence of clear bias and shades of perceived, the Waco citizens have to wonder, and should indeed wonder, if they are part of the groups that are biased for, or biased against.

ROZEAN:

A lot of these biases are based upon organizational mythologies that I have proven to be mythologies. The mug shot situation is based upon the mythology that all cops are good. The words of the public information officer where he convicted 200 quote “gang members” in the public eye, is based upon the mythology that all bikers are bad. And the blame-Twin Peaks-for-the-incident is based upon an organizational mythology that citizens, and people, and restaurants should just listen to the police and follow them without question, whether or not they are right or wrong, and whether or not they have any evidence to support their claims. And whether or not they do their community relations job to communicate clearly with the public. The mythology is that the people should just do what they police say without question. One of these evidences of biases that I have presented so far was not evidenced by a demonstration of an organizational mythology. One of these evidences of biases is based upon mathematical, scientific study, which has its own merit. And since a perceived bias by African American Wacoans exists, and these other mythologies exists; it is not a stretch to believe that there is another Waco PD organizational mythology that I have yet to mention – evidenced by mathematics. And I asked this question once before when I presented the Baylor study graph and the quote “elephant in the room.” Is the Waco Police Department biased on racial terms. While I said earlier that we have ended up in a troubling place, but I also said that no one is to blame except the way in which the Waco PD has chosen to behave in the information world. They created the perceived biases through their methods, and they will have to answer for them.

ROZEAN:

And the recommendation for the Waco Police Department as related to community relations? Is to do the research. Construct policy based upon military and civilian doctrine and ethics. And I am very confident that once they do this research, they will be able to soon realize that their community relations policy, which seems to simply involve taking plenty of pictures with police officers and kids; it will become evident to them that that …well, there is a lot more to it than that.

NEWS RELEASE Part II

ROZEAN:
Now on the subject of the Waco Police Department’s news release program, there isn’t much to say other than that they don’t use it.

ROZEAN

The last press release existing on the Waco PD website is on the Twin Peaks incident, and it goes back to June 2015.

ROZEAN:

I have right here an article written by Miranda Tan and it is titled “Why Press Releases Are More Important than Ever.” My personal experience, I would have like to have seen some press releases because I had to sift through the various Facebook post that had a lot of information that I really didn’t need. That is the advantage of news releases, especially from a reporter’s perspective. It is written in their language, and it is written in a succinct method. That’s why the news release method has been around so long. The Facebook method is garbled and confusing. However, that is not to say to go without Facebook.

ROZEAN:

This article by Miranda Tan points out a few interesting things about press releases. You can “improve your brand image” by frequently doing news releases and there is no limit to the number of news releases that you can put out. So you can constantly get your information out there. Simply putting it on Facebook puts the burden on the journalist. As a journalist, I may not assume that burden when I can go and simply find another point of view which is easily available. So rather than having all the negative news coverage that the Waco Police Department is suffering due to their mismanagement of the Twin Peaks incident from a public information perspective anyway.

ROZEAN:

Tan points out that by using press releases, organizations are able to distribute more positive aspects of their particular brand, as news releases go to news distribution service. In this way, an organization is not relying on the whims of reporters who are not likely to dredge through a cacophony of Facebook posts to find something relevant. And as there is no limit to the number of news releases that you can send out into these news services, you will end up with more frequency of your point of view going out into the news information world, even though reporters don’t necessary publish your news release in their entirety they may use it as a story idea to bounce off of, and your message is still being received by the journalist audience, which is a way to effect possible slants within future stories – as the message still has an effect on the minds of that particular audience.

ROZEAN:

Scouring for information about your particular point of view is very troublesome for reporter’s who are crunching to meet deadlines. It’s much easier to go out and find someone else who is willing to do an interview.

ROZEAN

And that interview may not be what the Waco Police Department wants to get out there. That is pretty evident from the one-year anniversary stories that came out in the 2016 May,

ROZEAN:

The national news stories concerning the Waco PD and their handling of the Twin Peaks incident that showed up on the anniversary of the event, had very little information provided by the Waco PD, however, they did include a lot of interviews from the bikers who were zipped tied and left to sit on the Waco Convention center floor for several hours, as well as leaked video and images from undisclosed, un-Waco PD authorized sources.

ROZEAN:

So as you can tell that those news reporters sought out interviews that were available and when you’re not available then the other side of the story gets out which is what happened in those anniversary stories…another thing in this Tan article is that it says “instant world-wide distribution.” You’re in a news service, you’re in a news distribution, that’s where it is going to go. You’re going to get your point across and your going to do it in their language. Facebook posts are tedious and cumbersome to sift through. Getting inside the news distribution service is the way to go. In junction with your Facebook posts, this is not to say that Facebook posts are outside of the realm of public affairs.

WEBSITE Part I

Let’s begin by discussing the Waco PD website and the online crime reporting link.

ROZEAN:

The Public Information Officer, Patrick Swanton, has trended with the times my making use of the “new media” as the Department has Facebook and Twitter pages that Swanton uses as his primary source of information release.  However, the police department’s website is very inefficient.

As mentioned before, the poor website use may be a result of budget constraints, and being unable to hire a webmaster, as the Waco city is trying to fit the bill of a quarter million dollars’ worth of overtime, related to the “Twin Peaks, May 17, 2015 Incident”.

ROZEAN:

Let us consider a legitimate example of where the Waco PD website offers a mechanism for citizens to communicate using technology, but is not being used much, perhaps due to lack publicity about the service The Baylor study mentioned earlier also demonstrates an interesting point on this subject. It states “While close to 20% of respondents had visited the WPD Facebook page, only 3% had used the internet to actually report a crime.”

ROZEAN:

This isn’t surprising, because when one clicks on the link, it is broken. However, if one goes back to the main page, one can find the menu item “Online Police Reports,” by scrolling down a total of 19 menu items. I pointed out in a previous video that an investigation should be done to find ways to make this link more user friendly.

ROZEAN:

In the previous video, I pointed the number of mug shots that are peppered throughout the Facebook page. Is this the major service that the Waco PD is providing to the Waco citizens? …while ignoring a major technological improvement to serving the people with online reporting. I suppose that the mug shots are supposed to serve as some sort of deterrent to crime, but isn’t more crime reporting, also a deterrent to crime. In either case, the online crime reporting oversight is a major area for the organization to improve upon.

INTRODUCTION

ROZEAN:

Coming up with recommendations and strategies to improve the Waco Police Department’s communication methods system is not is not hard to do. The laundry list of things that the Waco PD should be doing include; simplifying their website and making it more user friendly, specifically the online crime reporting function. They also need to use formal press releases rather than just relying on the unprofessional method of Facebook posts. They should also expand their community relations aspect as well, making it have a much more operational focus, rather than just the posting of smiling officer Facebook selfies with Waco citizens and children. And when interacting with the media the Waco PD needs to focus more on factual disclosure and less opinion and editorialization. And they need to do an in depth study of their systems theory mythologies toward certain groups of people, where it is not a hard case to make that the organization has a bias in the level of services provided to certain clusters of individuals – a deficit in service provision related to organizational mythology. But overall, I have to say that all these things will fall underneath a very simple, yet important goal to draft research-based public relation policies akin to those currently in use by military organizations. Coming up with this laundry list is not difficult to do, the challenge lies in the proof and identification of the deficits. I feel like in the preceding videos that I have laid a significant groundwork for the proof. But in this presentation, it is important to revisit what we have discussed so far, and the proof that these needs are real will become evident. IF they have not already.

ROZEAN:

When one analyzes the public information mechanisms used by the Waco Police Department from a systems theory approach; their communication systems appear to be somewhat “closed,” meaning they do not interacts well with the internal and external environment. Considering the Waco PD’s communication mechanisms, one can easily make the argument that there is an apparent “openness,” yet it is superficial, speculative, opinionated, and editorialized.

​

Waco and McLennan County have been frantically searching for somebody to blame for the Twin Peaks Massacre since about an hour after it happened.

Officials have blamed this putrid cocktail of death, personal tragedy, cop speak andBonfire of the Vanities quality journalism on a cabal of “five motorcycle gangs,” who “didn’t come to Waco to eat barbecue;” on the owners of the Twin Peaks Waco franchise; on the dead; on the Confederation of Clubs; on the witnesses; and on the Bandidos.

What's this item about? What makes it interesting? Write a catchy description to grab your audience's attention...

49% of respondents felt that the police always treated minorities with equal respect compared to other groups. Of that 49%, 66% were white, 19% were Hispanic, and 8% were black.” According to Area Vibes, the African American population makeup should be about 20%. So this means that less than half of the African Americans in Waco feel they are treated fairly. Sheriff David Clarke has been an outspoken opponent of any suggestions that police officers treat African Americans differently than other races. He maid this comment during a CNN interview with Don Lemon July 17, 2016.

Script

​

Part I:SWOT

                         Strenths & Weakness

FAde In:

Video Clip#1: Introduction

[Rozean sitting on Motorcycle]

Rozean:

In the earlier module, I described the “ Twin Peaks, May 17, 2015 Incident” in Waco, Texas – an occurrence that entailed over 200 single-event arrests made by the Waco Police Department surrounding what has been described in the media as a “biker gang shootout” that left nine dead in the aftermath…In this exercise, a SWOT analysis will be conducted on the Waco Police Department’s current communication methods, using the “Twin Peaks, May 17, 2015 Incident” as a reference point.

[Slides on S-W-O-T ]

ROZEAN:

The acronym SWOT, S-W-O-T, stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This type of analysis is a means for organizations to determine areas of task mastery and areas where improvement is needed. Let’s start with the Waco PD’s communication strengths.

[Que Slide on Strengths]

Rozean:

One thing about the Waco PD public information operations is that they are blessed with a great spokesperson, Sgt. Patrick Swanton. When he speaks his presences appears to establish ethos(credibility), pathos(emotion), and logos(logical argument).

[Key Swanton pic on Strengths slide]

He has a great ability to speak clearly and in a language that is easy to understand. Check out this clip from the Waco PD Facebook page.

[Que Elk video]

SWAnTon:

Ok…Good morning Y’all, to give you a little bit of an update. They have darted he elk, and the elk is down. As luck would have it, the elk has fallen in the most wooded part of the creek. We have volunteers, game wardens, and officers are, at this point, trying to rescue the elk out of the creek. And is obviously taking a team effort. As you can see they have got it now, and hopefully at this point we can get it medically evaluated and make sure it’s safe.

[Key more Swanton pics on Strengths slide]

ROzean:

Great job! Swanton also has nerves of steel when it comes to handling press conferences and interviews at the local and national level. In addition, Swanton in his role as public information officer, he has trended with the times my making use of the “new media” as the Department has Facebook and Twitter pages that Swanton uses as his primary source of information release.

However, this Strength also leads to weaknesses.

[Que Weakness slide,[X:X], key “somewhat closed system” bullet, [X:X],  key “existent, but inefficient…”bullet]

ROzean:

When one analyzes the public information mechanisms used by the Waco Police Department from a systems theory approach; their communication systems appears to be somewhat “closed,” meaning they do not interacts well with the internal and external environment. Considering the Waco PD’s communication mechanisms, one can easily make the argument that there is an apparent “openness,” yet it is superficial, speculative, opinionated, and editorialized.

[Key bullets “superficial,” “speculative,” “opinionated,”and “editorialized.”

[X:X][Key picture of racial police issues around country(TBD)][x:x],[x:x},[x:x]

ROzean:

The Waco PD communication message veers away from the essence of a uniformed organization’s communication expectation of transparency. American police departments have a media relations problem, and that problem is not limited to the various accusations and successions of distrust and conflict associated with police brutality and racial bias. Their problem goes to the heart of wearing a uniform –representative of a section of the government that can exercise a significant amount of power over the citizens—while engaging in public rhetoric of a subjective, opinionated, redacted nature. Greater transparency could help this problem

[Que images of the various regulations pages(TBD)]

ROzean:

I will eventually contend and demonstrate that police department public information mechanisms should be akin to the PI doctrine of military organizations.

[Que picture of the webpage(TBD)]

ROzean:

When one goes to the Waco PD’s PI website, one can see that the site does present a news release page, however in an overall sense, it provides very little information, and the information officer contact information is not clearly available, and the inquirer is referred to the Facebook and Twitter page where a fact seeker will only find tidbits of information, alongside other possibly irrelevant information of comment and opinion.

[Que image of Waco Tribune article “overtime bill”]

ROzean:

The lack of information mechanisms used by the Waco PD may be a result of budget constraints, and being unable to hire a webmaster. Possible budget deficits may exist due to the massive overtime bill, surrounding the prosecution of the 150 or so indictments related to the “Twin Peaks, May 17, 2015 Incident”—A bill of of a quarter million dollars, which the organization must not have as the Waco City Council just applied for federal assistance to cover the tab.

Video Clip#2: OPPOrtunities Transition

[Rozean walking]

ROzean:

However, despite these weak areas, the Waco PD has a lot going for it. The Facebook/Twitter posts often reflect the positive side of police work including pictures of Waco PD officers at community events or just selfies with citizens whose smiles indicate their appreciation for the officers and their institution.

[Que Facebook, “billboard” image, “assailant” image, “arrested officer” image, [x:x],“like” graphic]

​

Part II:SWOT

                         Opportunites and Threats

Video Clip#3: Statistics

[Rozean walking]

ROzean:

It doesn’t take a statistical genius to survey the Waco PD Facebook page to see that the community and various stakeholders support their police department.

[que statistical images]

ROzean:

Recently, the police department made three news worthy arrest, one was an alleged domestic assailant, a case where the SWAT team had been deployed, another arrest was presented as a sort of comedy or errors where an individual tried to pick up a package of marijuana from Federal Express, and the big arrest was a Waco PD officer arrested for alleged  police brutality. During the week of August 14th to 18th, the time frame of these arrests, the Waco PD Facebook page experience a huge bump in “likes.” The community support for the PD is a great opportunity for the organization to excel in the communication realm….

[Key Opportunities slide]

…But hold on……when one scrolls through the Waco Police Department page you can easily notice those embarrassing mug shots that have a lingering ability of disgrace posted next to every other major arrest that Swanton chose to post on the page…but the officer’s mug is missing…In a commented later, Swanton claims that the story was “posted before a mug shot was available.” A gentlemen further comments that it is never too late update a Facebook post. A week later, the mug shot was still not up, so the previously mentioned gentlemen took it upon himself to post the pic. Some comments say, “thanks for the transparency.” Was this really transparency? Or was it merely an appearance of an open system, when in fact it is biased toward a certain group that is exempt from mug shot publication?

[Que “Opportunity slide,”[x:x],”picture of officers,”[x:x],”Baylor Study Graphic 1,”[x:x],”Elephant graphic(TBD)]

ROzean:

A study by one of the Waco community’s larger tenant’s, Baylor University, shows a very high degree of satisfaction within the white community. However, the elephant in the room is the drastic difference in satisfaction when race is considered.

[Que “Threats” slide, with “Baylor Graphic 1”

ROzean:

Does this study show a bias in the Waco Police Department’s operations?

[Que “Threats” slide, with “Baylor Graphic 1”];pause [x:x}

ROzean:

It’s hard to not tank meaning from this graphic, especially when one considers the translation of the graphic in words in the first pages of the document.

[Que “49% document capture 1”]

ROzean:

The paragraph reads “Part III. COMMUNITY RELATIONS

[“Baylor Graphic 1”];

49% of respondents felt that the police always treated minorities with equal respect compared to other groups. Of that 49%, 66% were white, 19% were Hispanic, and 8% were black.” According to Area Vibes, the African American population makeup should be about 20%. So this means that less than half of the African Americans in Waco feel they are treated fairly. Sheriff David Clarke has been an outspoken opponent of any suggestions that police officers treat African Americans differently than other races. He maid this comment during a CNN interview with Don Lemon July 17, 2016.

[Que Clark Video]

Clark:

This whole anti-police rhetoric is based on a lie, there is no data…and you know this…there is no data, there is no research that proves any of that nonsense…none

[Pause Clark Video]

Rozean:

Clark went on to clarify that he was stating that, he believed, that there is no data to support claims that African Americans are treated differently than white Americans by police. Then Clark and Lemon debated for several minutes the merits of various studies, Harvard, Washington Post, etc.. that some claim proves aggressive behavior against African Americans, while others refute these findings…

[Que “Baylor Graphic 1”]

Rozean:

Of course, the Baylor Study does not prove racism existing in Waco Police Departments, but however it does demonstrate that over half of the African Americans in Waco feel they are not treated fairly. On August 10, Sequence Media Group filed this report on a Justice Department probe into the Baltimore Police Department.

[Que Sequence Media Video]

sequence reporter:

The long awaited findings of a Justice Department probe into the Baltimore Police Department were released today, painting an awful picture of routine violations of constitutional rights of residents, as reported by the Baltimore Sun. Launched after the Freddie Gray death in April 2015, the 163 page report found that the practices of the Baltimore police quote “perpetuate and fuel a multitude of issues rooted in poverty and race…

[pause Sequence Media Video]

Rozean:

Proving to many that racism exist in police forces will be a challenge for many years to come, but if a DOJ report suggests that race is a relevant factor in Baltimore, it stands to reason that it could also be a factor elsewhere in the United States. And even if all of this research is dead wrong, misinterpreted, whatever, there is still a perception that there are some issues about fair treatment from police officers across the country.

[Que “skeleton face image 1”,[x:x]” skeleton face image 2”]

ROzean:

And on that line of thinking, there is definitely a perception that many of those 200 or so wearing motorcycle gear that April afternoon, in Waco, were singled out, because of the way they dress, the way they look, and the choice of two-wheeled motorized conveyance, and also just because they were in the vicinity of a very serious crime.

[Que “Threats” slide;[x:x],”Negative Perceptions,”[x:x] ”Litigation,”[x:x],”National News microscope”]

ROzean:

So what exists, within all of this complicated mess of information, are the threats faced by the Waco PD. These threats are of the form of Negative Perceptions, a National News microscope, and the litigation that surrounds these things, which we will explored in Part 3. But a big question remains, how long will the Waco PD’s superficial, opinionated, editorialized communication method last?

PART III

Video Clip#4: THREATS Transition

[Rozean siting in study reading]

ROzean:

As discussed in the previous part, the Baylor study shows there is a belief that exists concerning unfair treatment by Waco PD, which presents a significant, troublesome issue for the Waco Police Department’s communication mechanisms.

[Que “Threats” slide;[x:x],”Negative Perceptions,”[x:x] ”Litigation,”[x:x],”National News microscope”

ROzean:

As was mentioned briefly in the previous discussion, another challenge the organization faces involve the various issues surrounding the legal burden of prosecuting the 154 indictments from the “Twin Peaks, May 17, 2015 Incident,” as well as the 15 federal lawsuits requesting the Waco D-A be recused, and the 4 civil lawsuits that are pending against various members of local law enforcement and the District Attorney Abel Reyna.

[Que various pics of Renya and news stories(TBD)]

ROzean:

While most of this burden is on D-A Reyna, the Waco PD’s communications mechanisms overlap to include McLennan county and Waco city government offices from a systems theory approach, and the media coverage inspired by all this litigation could be a potential threat if the Waco PD does not handle the media relations aspect professionally in the future.

[Ques “Internal and External Audiences” slide, [x:x], “Internal”,[x:x], “McLennan county DA, government offices”,[x:x], “Waco PD, city council, government offices”,[x:x],”Waco citizens & taxpayers”]

ROzean:

It was also previously mentioned that the local governments appear to be in a deficit of a quarter million dollars, the city council had just requested federal assistance to cover the huge tab of overtime. The internal audience involves a wide variety of stakeholders that include the government offices of the county and city, the Waco PD of course, and the Waco citizens as the tax burden and potentially negative press generated towards this area of Texas from enormous litigation requirements following the “Twin Peaks” shooting.

[Ques “External Audiences” slide, [x:x], “External”,[x:x],[“National Media audiences”, Twin Peaks photo(TBD)]

ROzean:

The external audience of the Waco PD communications, public information’s, mechanisms is the rest of the country, as following the “Twin Peaks, May 17, 2015 Incident”; a magnifying glass has been placed on the organization in the form of national press coverage.

[Que “Universal Values” slide]

ROzean:

This slide is from a study titled, “Creating a positive organization” written by Ian Macdonald, Karl Stewart, and Catherine Burke. It portrays the six universal values, they are universal as they are beliefs and expectations that seem to cross across varying cultures. They are important because they help to identify what we expect from uniformed services such as the police and military when it comes to media and communications activities.

[Key circling of “Honest,” [x:x], “Trustworthy,”[x:x]”Courageous,” [x:x],”Respectful/Dignifying,”[x:x],”Fair”]

ROzean:

We especially desire such powerful organizations like this to be honest, trustworthy, courageous, respectful and dignifying, and fair.

Video Clip#5: Powerful Organization Transition

[Rozean siting at work desk]

ROzean:

During this study, I am going to make the contention that police organizations, since they have the ability to exercise powerful controls over us, they should ascribe to media and communications methods of a higher standard than other “civilian” organizations when conducting public information goings-on.

[Que Military regulation images(TBD)]

ROzean:

The Department of Defense, the Air Force, Navy, and Army have very strict guidelines in the form of regulations and policies when it comes to their communication system theories.

[Que “DoD Directive slide,”[x:x]circle underline para.]

ROzean:

For example, the DoD public information directive states, the information officer, “shall, Ensure a free flow of news and information to the news media, the general public, the internal audiences […]; and other applicable forums” and considers it a “force multiplier.”

[Que “Air Force instruction 1,” ,”[x:x]circle underline para.]

ROzean:

The Air Force guidance states that internal communications have a “primary means” for leaders to “communicate with Airmen and their families.” It goes on to state, “The main purpose of conducting internal information programs is to link Airmen and their leaders.”

[Que “Army Regulation,” ,”[x:x]circle underline para.]

ROzean:

The Army publication states that information campaigns and mechanisms should “Act as tools for two-way communication,” and “ensure that news coverage is factual and objective.” and should “distinguish between fact and opinion,” that is that their messages must clearly “distinguish between and clearly identify editorials(command position)and commentaries (personal opinion).”

[Que “Navy Instruction,”,”[x:x]circle underline para.]

ROzean:

The Navy instruction states that “Internal communication also enables an organization to establish, maintain, and employ the traditional two-way communication channels, both upward and downward, between command leaders and command members.” The Navy regulation also goes on to state that “news coverage will be factual and objective.”

[Que images of FB and Twitter]

ROzean:

The internal and external audiences of police departments is often blended as they serve the community and the citizens, and this is certainly the case with Waco PD. A lot of the Facebook posts are your typical in-house “newslettery content, feel good stories and images, serving as an internal communication device in that manner. However, “two-way communication” is a recurring buzz-word in the military “regs” discussed earlier. And I have said that I believe that police departments should be akin to those types of philosophies. Let us consider a legitimate example of where the Waco PD website offers a mechanism for citizens to communicate using technology, but is not being used much, perhaps due to lack publicity about the service.

[Que “Baylor Study Graphic 2”]

ROzean:

The Baylor study mentioned earlier also demonstrates an interesting point on this subject. It states “• While close to 20% of respondents had visited the WPD Facebook page, only 3% had used the internet to actually report a crime.”

[Que video of clicking on the “report a crime link”]

ROzean:

This isn’t surprising, because when one clicks on the link, it is broken. However, if one goes back to the main page, one can find the menu item “Online Police Reports,” by scrolling down a total of 19 menu items. This link does work, however, better language would be something similar to the broken link verbiage of *-*-*Online Crime Reporting System for Non-Emergencies*-*-*, asterisks emphasized. Or they could put the link in red or bold lettering at the top of the page, whatever design one prefers that brings attention to the link. I believe that this is a major service of the police force, yet it is buried within a long menu, 19th from the top.

[pause the broken link video]

VIDEO CLIP 6: DUMMY CLIP CLosure BROKEN LINK

ROzean:

In the previous video, I pointed the number of mug shots that are peppered throughout the Facebook page. Is this the major service that the Waco PD is providing to the Waco citizens? …while ignoring a major technological improvement to serving the people with online reporting. I suppose that the mug shots are supposed to serve as some sort of deterrent to crime, but isn’t more crime reporting, also a deterrent to crime. In either case, the online crime reporting oversight is a major area for the organization to improve upon.