This podcast from PoliceOne has some good information on pre-planning for any type of law enforcement responses to election-day related incidents. News media reporters will be consumed with covering national, regional and local election results and may not have time or resources to report on police activity related to any unrest and/or criminal activity occurring at the same time. As a result news media reporters my use social media posts for their coverage of police incidents -- which may not tell the whole story. This is why agencies should be prepared to rapidly report on incidents themselves through their own social media platforms. (CLICK HERE TO LISTEN)

When are LEOs going to learn we are held to a higher standard, and we are under intense scrutiny for everything we do and say. Our social media posts should be focused on content which enhances our profession, strengthens our agency brand and reflects positively on our personal reputation in the community we serve. Refrain from posting anything which may even remotely be viewed as controversial, insensitive, untrue, vulgar and causes justifiable criticize of your agency. We have to be "stewards of impartiality" and a single wrongful social media post can destroy the perception of impartiality at a time when we are fighting to show we are not the enemy. (CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE FOX 4 NEWS STORY)

Updated: Oct 2, 2020
Good TV news story featuring the City of Anna Police Department in Collin County TX (CLICK HERE) highlighting the unique challenges smaller police agencies here in DFW are having competing against larger agencies to retain and attract officers, from a shrinking overall pool of officers. As younger officers abandon the profession all-together, and older officers flee to retirement, the smaller agencies are finding it more challenging to compete on salary. This has caused some agencies to begin marketing their culture-closeness, family-like working environment and highlighting their rapid growth trajectory to retain and attract personnel. City of Anna Chief Jeff Caponera is featured in this story and talks about how Anna PD’s culture is enabling APD to attract quality officers to their rapidly growing Collin County City. Part of Chief Caponera’s culture building was initiating a complete “Brand-Refresh” with the launch of a comprehensive social media platform which included a new and modern website, Twitter site and Facebook site. The platform is being used for inclusive communications with rapidly increasing number of new residents and businesses moving into Anna as well as a recruiting tool for new prospective officers. We designed and built the social media platform and website for APD.
