Identifying Strategies to Market the Police in the News

• NCJ Number: 188563
• Author(s): Stephen Chermak Ph.D.; Alexander Weiss Ph.D.
• Date Published: January 2000
• Length: 80 pages
• Publication Series: NIJ Research Report
• Grant Number(s): 96-IJ-CX-0078
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)

Annotation

A national survey of police agency public information officers and media personnel examined the day-to-day interactions of police public information officers and news personnel and the strategies used by police agencies to market community policing initiatives to the public.

Abstract

The law enforcement survey was mailed to 239 police agencies in cities with populations over 100,000. The media questionnaires were administered to the major newspaper and two television organizations located in the same metropolitan statistical areas as the police organizations. Results revealed that the police-media relationship was typically quite accommodating, cooperative, and mutually supportive. Public information officers appeared to be the primary means through which the police agency managed its public image. Police and media personnel had positive attitudes about their relationship. Nevertheless, community policing was a low priority topic for news. The news coverage that occurred presented a limited perspective on the philosophy of community policing. Findings suggested that police agencies should devise and implement broad marketing strategies to increase public awareness and involvement in community policing activities and that police education needed broadening to include discussions of more effective ways to market community policing. Appended figures, tables, and 20 references