Assignment:
Overview:
There are many times that a police officer will interact with the community. One position within the department is the Public Information Officer (PIO). This person interacts with the public about events, incidents in the community, respond on social media, and is the department's overall face with the community. In this assignment, you will take on the role of the PIO to answer the community's questions in a public forum.
Instructions:
Scenario: You are an officer for your local police department and just got a new Police Chief. The Chief is not savvy with social media and has selected you to be the Public Information Officer (PIO). The PIO's job is to speak to the public about events, incidents, respond to social media inquiries, and be the department's face. There is a Facebook live event occurring at your department in which citizens will ask questions about things that are going on. This will take some research on your part, so look up your police department, their workforce, and your geographical statistics for your town/city, if applicable. Sometimes being the PIO is like testifying in court without being in court!
As the PIO, answer the following questions. The citizens have come to the meeting with the following questions for you to address:
• What is your department's stance on crime? Is there anything that they can be doing differently now than they have before? Explain.
• We are concerned with actions by police officers occurring around the country. What do you think your department can do to keep us at ease?
• In what ways can your department be more productive and interactive with us in the community? What are some suggestions and steps that could be taken?
• Officers have been found in the past to have been violating the social media policy and posting inappropriate comments in other nearby departments. What is your department's stance on officer's use of social media, and what will you do to ensure that officers' personal opinions do not get involved in city/town politics?
Requirements:
• Submit a Word document in APA format.
• Maximum three pages in length, excluding the Title and Reference pages.
• At least two resources.