Title: Marketing Community Policing in the News: A Missed
Opportunity?
Series: Research for Practice
Author: Steven Chermak and Alexander Weiss
Published: National Institute of Justice, July 2003
Subject: Community policing and media
9 pages
17,000 bytes

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U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice

NIJ
Research for Practice

Marketing Community Policing in the News: A Missed Opportunity?

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U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
810 Seventh Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20531

John Ashcroft
Attorney General

Deborah J. Daniels
Assistant Attorney General

Sarah V. Hart
Director, National Institute of Justice

This and other publications and products of the U.S. Department of
Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice can be
found on the World Wide Web at the following site:

Office of Justice Programs 
National Institute of Justice
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij

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NIJ

July 03

Marketing Community Policing in the News: A Missed Opportunity?

The full study, "Identifying Strategies to Market Police in the News" (final
report submitted to the National Institute of Justice, 2001), is available at
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/grants/194130.pdf. The study was
supported by NIJ grant 96-IJ-CX-0078 with funds from the Office of
Community Oriented Policing Services.

Findings and conclusions of the research reported here are those of the
authors and do not reflect the official position or policies of the U.S.
Department of Justice.

NCJ 200473

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About This report

The police and the media need each other: The police know that most
people form their impression of the justice system through media
accounts, while the media often report on crime.

Police departments often seek to use the media to involve community
members in crime prevention and problem solving. But publicizing
community policing strategies is different from producing traditional
crime reports. The research described here investigated how the
relationship between the police and the media affects coverage of
community policing.

What the researchers found

Coverage of community policing is favorable, and in general, media access
to the police is not a problem. Most police department public information
officers (PIOs) and reporters contacted for the study believe police-media
relations are good.

A major barrier to better media handling of community policing is the
monopoly of the crime story. PIOs spend most of their time responding to
requests for crime information so they have little time for community
policing.

To develop a winning approach, the police could go beyond the
conventional means they now use and explore the possibility of using the
news media as one--but not the sole--component of a broad outreach
strategy. Some departments already do this, and others could use their
ideas. Police departments might also consider assigning some PIO
responsibilities to other departmental staff, even to nonsworn personnel.

What were the study's limitations?

Television stations and newspapers were contacted for the study; radio
stations were not. Only police departments in very large cities were
studied.

Who should read this report?

PIOs and police chiefs, especially those in departments where community
policing has been adopted; reporters who cover criminal justice issues; city
desk editors; and television station news managers.

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Steven Chermak and Alexander Weiss
Marketing Community Policing in the News: A Missed Opportunity?

In community policing, it's essential to gain citizen support and
involvement. The news media can play a key role in this effort through
their wide dissemination of information. The police know that most people
form their impressions of crime and the justice system from newspapers,
television, and radio rather than from direct exposure (as crime victims,
for example).[1] For the police, the media convey their message to the
public; for the media, the police are an indispensable information source.

But "marketing" community policing through the media is not easy,
because stories about long-range strategies lack the human drama and
immediacy of crime stories.

Researchers sought to find out how the police use the media to promote
community policing, and with what result. The study's goals were to assess
the quality of police-media relations, examine the receptiveness of the
media to community policing, identify the promotional methods police
use, and measure the amount and quality of press coverage community
policing receives. (See "Study Design and Method.")

The researchers found that police-media relations are mutually supportive,
that media representatives see the police as accessible, and that the media
are accommodating when public information officers (PIOs) ask for
coverage of community policing. Yet crime stories take precedence over
community policing stories, and coverage of community policing tends to
be narrow--devoid of any discussion of goals or philosophy. The
researchers concluded that an effective marketing strategy might call for
broader outreach and the possibility of sharing some PIO responsibilities
among other staff.

Police and media rate their relationship as good

Developing and maintaining favorable media relations is basic to securing
adequate and impartial press coverage. The researchers who conducted the
study found that, for the most part, police-media relations are productive.

Accessibility is a key to effective relations, and in general, the reporters
and other media representatives contacted for the study gave the police
high marks on this measure.

Almost all the PIOs contacted for the study see their relationship with the
media as good, and they view the media as accommodating. (See "The
Public Information Officer.") When they ask the press to cover a new
community policing activity, they say their requests are met.

Despite favorable police-media relations, community policing has not
generated a stronger partnership between the police and the media,
according to the researchers. Few representatives of either the media or the
police said their relationship was enhanced because of community
policing.

Constraints in using the media

No matter how good the working relationship with the media might be, it
cannot overcome the constraints PIOs face. They must spend more time
handling media inquiries about crime than doing anything else, which
leaves them little time to invest in marketing community policing and
similar initiatives.

PIOs face other constraints as well. Just over 10 percent of the
departments contacted for the study have a budget to publicize innovative
programs. In addition, some PIOs don't feel well-prepared for their job.
These constraints may help explain why, from the media's perspective,
police departments don't keep them well-informed about community
policing.

Crime makes headlines; community policing does not

Community policing attracts a certain amount of coverage. The vast
majority of the reporters contacted for the study said they had run at least
one story about community policing in the past year--some reported 10 or
more stories. Moreover, newspaper articles about community policing tend
to be far longer than crime stories. Yet as measured by number of articles,
community policing comes in a distant second behind crime.

Of more than 1,000 articles on crime and community policing found by the
researchers, the overwhelming majority dealt with crime. In terms of
substance, the community policing articles were thin, with the topic treated
outside any context of its history or philosophy. The goals of community
policing were treated similarly; achievements were rarely noted.

Most police use conventional media methods

The departments contacted for the study most commonly use press releases
and direct communication (phone calls to media representatives) to
promote community policing and other innovative programs. PIOs
generally consider press conferences too time-consuming.

Although the methods of choice are conventional, they are the easiest and
most efficient ways to maximize coverage, they reach several kinds of
media outlets, and they can convey large amounts of information.

PIOs prefer television and newspapers to radio: television because it
reaches so many people and newspapers because they can convey a great
deal of information.

Toward an effective strategy

On the whole, the research indicates that police have not been
exceptionally successful at promoting community policing in the news and
are not taking full advantage of their access to the media. The researchers
identified other marketing strategies, however, that can inspire citizen
involvement. A community policing strategy can benefit from a
well-thought-out marketing strategy.

Beyond the news media. Community outreach need not be confined to the
media. Presuming sufficient resources, police departments could develop a
broad outreach approach that includes the media and other tools. Some
departments already do this. (For methods agencies use to reach their
communities, see "Creative Outreach.")

The PIOs contacted for this study said they publish newsletters, work with
neighborhood groups, operate student or citizen police academies, conduct
citizen seminars, and are in touch with business and civic leaders. In some
cases PIOs appear on television programs or radio talk shows. Several
departments have their own cable TV programs or Web sites.

Maximizing in-house resources. Especially where resources are scarce,
PIOs could share responsibilities. Reporters often have cultivated
relationships with particular police officers, whom they tend to contact
more than the PIOs when they seek crime information. Given these
relationships, marketing need not be the exclusive preserve of the PIO.
Pooling responsibility might help smaller departments, most of which
probably do not even have one full-time, dedicated PIO.

Police departments may also consider whether more nonsworn staff could
handle public information tasks. The study revealed that these staffers
typically have backgrounds in areas like journalism and public relations.
Some staff may thus have a better grasp of media operations, needs, and
expectations.

Evaluating outreach strategies

After launching a broader marketing strategy, police departments will want
to find out whether it is working. If citizen involvement is a major aspect
of community policing, then key questions in an evaluation could include
whether citizens better understand community policing, whether their
support is stronger, and whether they have become involved as partners
with the police.

By evaluating the effectiveness of specific outreach methods, a police
department can target its resources toward the best strategies.

Note

1. Chermak, Steven M., Victims in the News: Crime and the American
News Media, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995:3.

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Study Design and Method

Information about police promotional efforts came from a survey
conducted among agencies in cities with populations greater than 100,000.
Of the 239 agencies contacted, 203 (85 percent) responded. Questions
included what promotional strategies are used, how receptive the media
are, and how the agency views the quality of media coverage.

Media managers and reporters at the major newspaper and the two top
television stations in the metropolitan statistical area of the police
departments were also surveyed. Of the 969 managers and reporters
contacted, 442 (46 percent) responded. Questions included what police
sources are used, how the media perceive their relationship to the police,
and the amount and type of coverage given to community policing.

To measure the number and quality of articles about community policing,
the researchers reviewed newspapers in four cities. Police-media relations
were good in two cities and considerably unsatisfactory in the other two.
Articles appearing in a 1-year period (1997) were reviewed. Articles about
crime were also reviewed during a 2-week period constructed to represent
a year's worth of coverage.

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The Public Information Officer

The departments contacted for this study are large, so they assign at least
one full-time official as a public information officer (PIO). PIOs have
access to top department officials; the study revealed that more than half
the PIOs meet with the police chief every day or even several times a day.
PIOs appear to be experienced and well-prepared: On average they've been
in their job more than 4 years and have had at least 50 hours of formal
training in police-media relations.

Traditionally, PIOs function as "organizational smoke detectors," who in
times of crisis become "fire extinguishers."* In other words, they largely
react to crime rather than work proactively to build the department's
image. The advent of community policing has done little to change this.

The PIO functions as an information broker. Media representatives
contacted for the study say the PIO is their main source of information
about community policing.

Note

* Surette, Ray, and Richard Alfredo, "Public Information Officers: A
Descriptive Study of Crime News Gatekeepers," Journal of Criminal
Justice 23, 4 (1995):325-336.

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Creative Outreach

If law enforcement agencies want to complement and supplement media
coverage of community policing, they can borrow from an array of
methods used by departments throughout the country.

o Chicago mounted an innovative campaign intended to heighten
awareness of community policing among its linguistically diverse citizens,
using multimedia and multilingual information initiatives.[a] Brochures,
newsletters, billboards, television and radio ads, and information hotlines
were some of the components. Partly as a result of the aggressive
marketing, awareness increased, though not as much among
Spanish-speaking Latinos.

o New Haven, Connecticut, has a widely acclaimed and award-winning
community policing program whose outreach components include a public
cable TV program aimed to increase awareness and access, a series of
workshops for residents on various aspects of community policing, and
production of a documentary film profiling the city's police and
community policing.[b]

o To reach out to the many Latino residents of Corcoran, California, the
police department created Amigos de la Comunidad, a Spanish-language
citizen police academy. One outcome was the formation, by several
academy graduates, of a Spanish-language unit in the department's
volunteer community patrol.[c]

Creative ways to reach the community can also be borrowed from
programs other than community policing. After recognizing that
newspapers, fliers, and radio spots were not enough to motivate people to
attend community meetings, the New Britain, Connecticut, Weed and Seed
site organized a street parade. The event was intended as a means to recruit
people to participate in focus groups that would target specific
neighborhood problems.[d]

Notes

a. CAPS at 5: A Report on the Progress of Community Policing in
Chicago, Chicago: Chicago Police Department, 1998; Community
Policing and "The New Immigrants": Latinos in Chicago, by W.G. Skogan
et al., Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of
Justice, July 2002:14-16 (NCJ 189908).

b. Weed & Seed In-Sites IX, 5 (November-December 2001):17; Web site
of the city of New Haven, Connecticut (http://www.cityofnewhaven.com).

c. Community Policing Exchange VII, 30 (January-February 2000).

d. Weed & Seed In-Sites IX, 5 (November-December 2001):20.

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The National Institute of Justice is the research, development, and
evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. NIJ provides
objective, independent, evidence-based knowledge and tools to enhance
the administration of justice and public safety.

NIJ is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes
the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for
Victims of Crime.

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NCJ 200473