Doing Crisis Communications Right – Your Follow Up Questions Answered

Since the podcast on “doing crisis communications right“, with Captain Chris Hsiung and Shino Tanaka, aired last week, I’ve received some really great follow up questions from listeners. I sent these questions off to Captain Hsiung and Shino, and they were kind enough to write up some detailed answers for me to share with all of you.

Note: If you have any follow up questions during or after listening to any episode of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, don’t be shy to send them to me so that I can get them answered for you.

Your follow up questions answered: Doing crisis communications right

Q: How do you communicate with those people in your community who do not have the means or refuse to use social media?

A: Although we serve a very tech-savvy community, we understand that digital media channels are only part of our overall department efforts to reach our community.  Our Community Action and Information Unit (CAIU) is charged with outreaching to the community through traditional and digital media methods.  As such, they routinely give presentations to our neighborhood associations, civic groups and schools.  In addition, our community meets them face-to-face at numerous city-wide festivals, events, and activities.  Our department, like many others in North America, have a department philosophy of community policing.  In essence, this means an ongoing effort to partner with residents, businesses, or civic groups and form valuable relationships before a particular criminal issue or need arises.  Our digital media strategy overlays our community policing philosophy and acts as a means to magnify our voice and message.

Q: It would have been of interest (at least to me) if there had been more discussion of the differences between how and what information you provide internally and in the field to police officers when a crisis is occurring, and to the public – as well as platforms you use for both. You must do this so as to not be in regulatory or legal violation?

A: During an in-progress event or crisis, information from witnesses is given (in real-time) from the public safety dispatchers to the patrol officers responding to the event.  As people call in to report an emergency, the information is entered into our computer aided dispatch system (CAD) and relayed to officers over the radio as well as through our mobile data computers in the car.  During a crisis, our social media team will actively monitor open source social media channels (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, etc) discussing the crisis event and will also feed pertinent information to dispatch and officers in the field.

As a sign of the times, our experience has been that many in the community will take to social media and engage with our department to discuss the crisis event as it plays out.  This provides us extra “eyes and ears” from the community and is very beneficial to help us have better situational awareness of an incident.  A great example of this was during our recent #MVpuma event when a mountain lion strolled through one of our densely populated areas.  A community member took the time to tweet us information about a regional mountain lion research group that might know more about the animal – and it turned out they were right!

As a crisis continues to unfold, we have to remind ourselves that initial information about an unfolding event is oftentimes inaccurate or false, so we take great care to only validate or share known facts about an event (as a government agency, if we tweet it, it becomes fact).  We also have to be timely in responding to rumors or misinformation.  If you stay silent and wait too long, mainstream media may broadcast misinformation (which can then lead to additional resources being diverted to address rumors).  Speak too soon with inaccurate information and you’ll find yourself in the same quandary of correcting facts.

There are times when we have to withhold specific information due to the need to keep our officers safe or to prevent the information getting to a suspect we are trying to apprehend.  An example of this would be a foot pursuit into a neighborhood.  In this case, we might provide a map showing the general area of the search but since we don’t want suspects knowing exactly where we’re at (bad guys carry smartphones too) we won’t discuss specific locations.  There’s no black/white answer for any given situation so we constantly weigh the need to inform the public vs. the need to keep operational security.

Q: I really liked your vision of a two way communication with the public – and – would have liked to have heard more about those communications and public responses.

A: We view our digital media channels like an extension of our efforts to professionally interact and engage with our community.  For example, if you call the Mountain View Police Department or walk into our front lobby, our expectation is that we would be professional, answer any questions you might have, or provide the best service possible for your needs.  We feel that this experience should be no different when engaging with us on digital media channels.  This means that our digital media “voice” is more human and less robotic too.  If you look at any of our posts on our Facebook or Twitter feeds, you’ll see that we make every effort to respond back to anyone who takes the time to make a comment or ask us a question.  The community response from this approach has been overwhelming and extremely appreciative.  We are very privileged to serve a community that trusts and respects the job we do in keeping them safe.  Our approach to social media has allowed us to strengthen our ties and further develop, educate, and inform the community we serve.

Note from the editor

Thanks so much to Captain Chris Hsiung and Shino Tanaka for taking the time to chat with me on The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, and for taking even more time to answer our listeners’ questions! Thanks as well to everyone who tuned in to listen to the amazing job that Mountain View Police Department is doing when it comes to their crisis communications.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Agnes + Day’s new Crisis Intelligence Podcast, which is now available on iTunes and Stitcher!