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The Public Information Officer (PIO) role has become entrenched in American law enforcement. While PIO structures vary — civilian/sworn, part of a unit with multiple personnel or a set of duties tacked onto another role — the purpose is the same: improve engagement with the community. PIOs seek to disseminate factual information about the agency, promote its public image, and build and maintain its reputation.
But in so doing, they often miss the most important audience of all: the agency’s own personnel.
“We’re all doing so much, sometimes we don’t think about how it affects our people or whether they’re interested in seeing it,” says Sgt. Anthony Molina of the Chula Vista (Calif.) Police Department (CVPD). He brings up the example of press releases: Many agencies send press releases to reporters and the public but fail to send them to personnel.
Today, CVPD press releases go out to staff before the public. It’s one of many things that has changed as the agency created a formal PIO unit with dual goals: Move from reacting to media calls to proactively engaging the public, while also improving and increasing internal communication.
Caitlin Clark, public information specialist for CVPD, says the agency’s approach to internal communications boils down to three questions:
- Who is your audience?
- What should you be sharing with them?
- What message delivery platforms will you use?
Clark and Molina explored these questions in their session at the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) 2024 annual conference.
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Your audience
The answer to the first question seems obvious: Internal communication in law enforcement is about reaching officers. But Molina cautions, “It’s not just a bunch of uniforms. There’s detention officers, dispatchers, civilian employees.” And even among sworn officers, you have different units — investigations, narcotics, school resource officers, etc.
Each of these may require different messages or different tactics to reach them. “Think about property and evidence personnel,” Molina says. “They’re down in the basement. They don’t get the message about what’s happening in the agency.” That’s different from patrol officers, who frequently interact in highly trafficked areas in the station and therefore have more opportunities to pick up on agency activities.
What to share
Like most agencies, the CVPD had always sent out periodic email announcements. “But we wanted to create a more holistic strategy of what to share,” Clark says. That included communications such as “messages from the chief, major case updates, wellness resources, positive media coverage of the agency, community feedback, press releases, social events, new programs and social media highlights.”
If that sounds overwhelming, Clark advises to just start simple. Use a content calendar and map out holidays and appreciation days and you’ll pretty quickly have a reason to engage personnel regularly. “Even just sending an email a couple of times a month is often an improvement,” Clark says.
One aspect that stands out about CVPD’s communications is the use of video. Clark and Molina don’t have a video crew or special equipment; they film using an iPhone and use free video editing tools. Video allows them to get playful and make agency messages more engaging. In one of Chief Roxana Kennedy’s quarterly messages, she wanted to address the fact that some officers were pushing the boundaries of the department’s new beard policy. Molina appeared on camera wearing a fake beard and huge bushy eyebrows. Chief Kennedy praised Molina’s use of “product” to keep his beard within policy. The eyebrows? Well, not much could be done about that, the chief admitted.
In years past, this message might have gone out as a dry policy reminder. But by using video and joking around a bit, the message resonated. “We not only saw better compliance with the beard policy but also a buzz around the department,” Molina says. “There was lots of viewership of the chief’s message.”
Message delivery platforms
Email is the obvious way to send messages to staff, but the CVPD uses an array of other tactics too. And even with email, “it’s not just about sending it,” Molina says. To cut through the mass of email flooding employee inboxes, “we had to get creative. So we developed ‘branded’ emails.” Drawing on Clark’s graphic design, marketing and branding background, the department created an identity for the Public Information Unit and for the different types of communications it sends, such as alerts and requests.
As Clark and Molina started to create more video content, digital bulletin boards became a central form of the agency’s internal communications strategy. “PDTV” plays on 11 screens placed to reach different audiences — just outside the equipment room, as well in dispatch, the crime lab, and the property and evidence room. In addition to video, the screens can be used to display slides that rotate. “We use billboard-style content, something that can be read very quickly,” Clark says. The point is not to hammer home long messages but to draw personnel in and point them to where to go to receive more information. Clark and Molina update the content at least once a week, using a web-based platform that allows them to push updates to all 11 screens.
Other platforms to consider include:
- Flyers
- An internal website such as a SharePoint site or an intranet
- Getting messages out through supervisors at roll call, orientation and in-service trainings.
“Some of these are not new, but maybe aren’t being used consistently,” Molina notes. Also think about how they can be repackaged. CVPD is currently building out a SharePoint site rebranded as “PD Insider” because SharePoint isn’t always well-received among personnel.
While some messages are limited to a specific platform, often the CVPD uses a cross-platform approach for internal communications. For staff appreciation day, Clark and Molina filmed a video with the chief’s message that went out via email, but also posted a snippet of the video on PDTV with a QR code to view the full footage, then shared messages from the community that had come in on social media.
Benefits of internal communication in law enforcement
Just two years into its push to enhance internal engagement, the CVPD is already seeing results. There’s more excitement around events and new developments, Molina notes. For example, the department has long been known for its industry-leading drone as first responder program, and now personnel can learn about program enhancements on the digital message boards. While these enhancements are shared publicly too, “instead of them hearing it from a community member, we want them to hear it from us first,” Molina says.
This in turn fosters pride in the organization. “It’s created a better sense of community and boosted morale,” Molina says. “Initially, we would do ‘walkabouts’ to talk with people. In doing that, we built allies, people who would come to us with input and feedback. Now, instead of having to hunt people down, we have a passionate team of people wanting to help — sworn and nonsworn.”
