Sometimes when you rattle a cage, you end up getting something thrown at you.
Last week in "Media relations low priority with B'fords RCMP," I took a shot at the local detachments for what we perceived as a lack of information being forthcoming to the community in the wake of recent violence and ongoing crime activity.
Not surprisingly my phone rang early Friday morning with Sgt. Kurt Grabinsky wanting to talk about my opinions and to express concern with my portrayal of his detachment's work with the media. His call was quickly followed up by a call from S/Sgt. Howard Nodwell, detachment commandant, inviting me and anyone else in the newsroom who was interested down to the headquarters for a chat.
John Cairns, Sean Macey and I promptly marched downtown where we met with both police officers in what turned out to be a cordial and enlightening discussion.
They expressed surprise at our frustration with the media relations offered, as we were the only media outlet, local or otherwise, who do not routinely follow up on the press releases that are provided by the RCMP. I took that hit for the team. Frankly, after a long period of frustration in which requests for callbacks were lost in limbo, my team dropped the ball. We just quit trying. So, to entirely blame the communications breakdown at the feet of the RCMP was inaccurate. When they became uncommunicative, we became unresponsive.
We vowed to improve and they promised to get back to us in as timely a manner as any given investigation allowed.
They admitted a callback wouldn't likely elicit any more information than was originally released, but they were right in pointing out that at least a conversation and a line of communication is established. We agreed.
On their side, the officers listened to as we explained it isn't the information they are actually giving us that has readers frustrated. It is the information that isn't being released. Readers are demanding more information about specific crimes and crime trends in the community. We acknowledged the police are busy doing their best to investigate and solve those crimes and that they are police officers first, with media relations way down the list.
At the same time they said they see the value of working closely with the media, and there are situations when the media can actually be of assistance to the work they are doing.
The outcome of the one instance I cited of trying to dig out information on a tip from the public turned out to be a case of disconnected phone tag. The officers pointed out deficiencies in our telephone system that make it impossible for them to contact reporters asking for a callback after officer hours. We said we will look at ways to improve that.
It was a far reaching and candid meeting that hopefully has built some solid relationships on both side of the table.
In his phone call, Sgt. Grabinsky suggested it would have been more professional to ask to meet with RCMP to discuss our frustration before giving them a black eye on the op-ed page. He's probably right, but by rattling the cage, considerable progress was made in forging improved communications (dare I say it?) going forward.
