BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN an effort to improve the relationship between police and the media, the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force (RSCNPF), in collaboration with the US Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, is hosting a three-day workshop.
The workshop, which began yesterday (Apr. 30) at the Police Training Complex in Basseterre, is being facilitated by Stephen Davis, President of Davis Investigative Group LLC, who is a former Captain and Public Information Officer (PIO) in the New York Police Department.
Davis held a roundtable discussion with members of the local media houses and a number of senior police officers, in which representatives of both organisations aired their views on certain issues, their respective responsibilities to the public and some of the barriers to communication in the dissemination of information.
The former Captain briefly spoke about his experience as a police officer and police spokesperson, with emphasis on the roles of the police and the media concerning crime.
“We have to understand that the police have a job to do and the media have a job to do. But if you don’t try to work together, how could you get those two jobs working together a common goal? And I believe they both have the same common goal…that common goal is to help increase safety for the public, is to keep the public informed, both of the good things that are happening as well as the bad things that are happening. The police have to deal with some tragic situations that deal with crime and the media have got to report on areas of public interest.”
Davis told the gathering what he wanted to accomplish through the workshop.
“What I am trying to accomplish down in the next few days is to meet with the police and the media to talk about how best to manage that common interest. It’s one thing to report on the crime, and sometimes it is quite shocking…the crime is quite shocking by nature. But there is another side to that crime.”
Explaining what he meant by another side to that crime, Davis said, “How is that crime going to be resolved; what conditions contributed to that crime; and how does society as a whole, media, police, social agencies, law enforcement, education, how they can work together in trying to achieve that goal?”
The consultant encouraged the participants to share their views on the success achieved and failure encountered in their interaction with members of the two organisations relating to the dissemination of timely and accurate information.
One of the many areas that he addressed was the gathering of information by reporters at a crime scene.
“The police in the street have to deal with it (crime) as it is happening. The reporters who get there as it is happening are trying to get the story. And in my day, back in the early 90s, it wasn’t as critical to get the story quickly, because we didn’t have Twitter and Blogs and Youtube. We didn’t really have much of K-24 Hour cable news. So, the pressure was less for both the media and therefore the police; in that, some of the details could be filled in later. Right now we do not have the luxury.”
He made reference to the Middle East where, in the past, information was suppressed by the governments, but “they couldn’t suppress the Youtubers, the Cell phones and literally within seconds what was happening on the scene is broadcast throughout the world, and that’s what you have to deal with now”.
“It is a much different situation when I was there. So that brings more responsibility on the part of the local police at the time to try to deal with the media. Now, you can’t take time out of your own duties, neglect your duties so that you can accommodate a reporter, and reporters need to understand that.
But there has to be some sense of cooperation at that level that will help people achieve their jobs”.
Davis gave examples of some cases whilst he was a PIO and noted that because of the large number of reporters who would have sought information on the many murders that would occurred within one day in the US, he could not have responded to them all, but “I had to be prepared to get questions on them all”.
He stated that it is a long but very important process in the dissemination of information to the media, because “what happens what’s reported is going to have a larger implication for society as a whole, for communities’ safety, for tourism, for business, for education and I hope I can help the police understand the role of the media and the media understand the role and responsibilities of the police and try to figure out how collaborative responsible relationship with the two can help achieve what is really a common goal. At the end of the day, everybody is interested in public safety, community safety”.
The workshop continues today and Davis, along with the participants, will be having a walkthrough the Newtown and Frigate Bay communities.
