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City Hall175 East 200 NorthSt. George, UT 84770(435) 627-4000
| November 21, 2009 |
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Negative Press We had an interesting exercise in a training session on communication once. The instructor whispered something to the first person, who then passed it on to the next person and so forth til it reached then last person. The objective was to keep as accurate an account as possible. The last person then retold aloud the details he or she received. It was interesting to hear how the details changed. And we hear the same thing at the Police Department. This is the main reason that we try to separate witnesses and get the "first" account of what they saw or heard. The facts are diluted with every telling and re-telling, and with the passage of time. We at the Police Department are in a very public fish bowl. Everything we do in a split second is evaluated at length by virtually anyone that can get a listening ear. And the newspaper is a good way to voice an "opinion" without responsibility for the outcome. Several "accounts" recently are just a mirror of years worth of similar "accounts" that all have some things in common in that they leave out something or they alter something to fit the teller of the "account". A recent example was a man arrested on a traffic stop and taken to jail on an outstanding warrant. "There must be some mistake" is what we hear all the time in like situations. "Handcuffs slapped on" is an interpretation of restraints being applied, designed to inflame the emotions of the readers. The jail will not admit arrested individuals without handcuffs on, nor will we transport any arrested person without restraints. The warrant was also not mentioned in the "retelling" of the story. A truck comes around a corner, striking an off duty officer with his foot on the curb and the other leg over the bicycle. The driver indicates that he "saw the bicyclist bail off his bicycle." If he saw the bicyclist "bail off the bicycle", why then did he keep driving and run over the bicycle? In fact, the mirror strikes the bicyclist, knocking him to the ground and the rear tire of the truck runs over the bicycle. This was left out of the account. Facts conveniently "omitted" and purported to be truth to transfer responsibility. Numerous are the calls at the police department from an angry individual who got a ticket for going 9 over the speed limit (or whatever the minimal amount is), when the officer actually got the speeder at 17 over and gave them a break. When the "rest of the story" is told, the motivation for the negative "account" can be discerned and things can be cleared up and the big picture then becomes quite clear. Bottom line, these accounts are a failure to take responsibility for one's actions. These have usually been found to be without any merit at all, so they go to the press in a vocal attempt for sympathy. We got caught doing something wrong and we don't like it, so we tell it how we want it to sound. Many more people (the silent majority) have positive experiences and are able to refute these negative "accounts", but these positive experiences never see the light of day, much less the public press. It appears argumentative when the Police Department stands up for itself in an attempt to refute these "accounts" in the media. It's a balance between getting the correct information out, and stirring things up. When you hear one of these obvious attempts to be inflammatory, don't pass it on and don't allow yourself to be taken in by the teller. Remember that there is always another version of the "account". Rather, instruct the "teller" of the "account" to take this to someone who can do something about their claim. The majority of these claims never make it to the Internal Affairs division of the police department, which is where they should end up. Believe us when we say that we will not tolerate any of our officers casting a negative light on our department. We believe we have the best department in the state, if not the intermountain west. We want to keep it that way. Craig Harding Public Information Officer St. George Police Department |
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