Long gone are the days when the attentive public would simply sit back and wait for whatever version of reality officials thought should be delivered. Instead, what prevails today is a panoply of media professionals, who see it as their duty and professional responsibility to ferret out information, ask the hard questions, and get answers. This is an essential aspect of governance in any democracy. As such, therefore, when the police or any other public servants come to a press briefing, they should come prepared. Half-stepping is not good enough. It really is as simple as that.
Very many people often make the mistake of equating official statements with public relations, thereby missing the dynamic relation between routine communications and more formal press releases. Whenever a police officer deals with a member of the pubic on any matter involving policing, his behaviour and demeanour become part and parcel of police-public relations.
Take for example, any number of issues relating to how the public is kept informed about on-going investigations. The police do a fairly good job, on a fairly regular basis, to let the public know what is happening on the crime beat. And for this, their work is respected and duly noted.
They are not as successful, however, when they try to go beyond policing, and try their hand at counselling or other jobs, some of them associated with social work or other pastoral duties. For example, when Assistant Commissioner of Police Ronald Ferguson counsels, ﾓI am optimistic that our work has paid off and we are now clearly able to see the imminent closure of what can only be described as a complex, challenging, unique and dynamic series of events.ﾔ ﾓTo the wider Bahamian community: We can breathe a collective sigh of relief because of the current status of these cases,ﾔ Ferguson added at a news conference.
Our problem with this kind of optimistic reporting is that it raises more questions then it answers. Assuming that Mr. Ferguson is right this time, the question arises as to whether another police officer was also right when he announced earlier that the police had cracked one of the cases involving one of the five boys. As we remember, at the time Mr. Ferguson spoke another officer was theorising that this one case was not connected to the others.
We recognise, however, that on any given day, The Royal Bahamas Police Force and The Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the other uniformed branches of the public service, face a myriad of challenges. For the most part, these men and women acquit themselves extremely well. However, as in all things human, they are not perfect. As such, therefore, there is always room for improvement.
With this, then, as a most necessary caveat, we make reference to the police handling of the matter involving the five boys who have gone missing on Grand Bahama, and who are presumed dead. Our specific reference is not directly to the actual investigation, but to the public relations effort of the police.
What strikes us as a most unfortunate aspect of this sad case is the alarming extent to which the police thought they had to go, in bringing information on a timely basis to a public which was hungry for any information concerning the matter at hand. This is precisely where the police made their biggest tactical blunder. If there is no new information to report, this is precisely what should have been reported. On its face, this might sound somewhat trite. But if it is put into its context, one sees the true implication of the matter.
For example, when the police made their swoop on the Winn-Dixie Food Store in Freeport, or the much publicized pounce upon the game room, they inflamed a public which was already on edge. But these events aside, what troubles the public most is the apparent contradiction between current and past claims concerning arrests. When a number of youngsters were arrested, the police claimed that they had ﾑcrackedﾴ the case involving one missing boy, Jake Grant. While this may turn out to be so, many people are anxiously waiting to see the connection, if any, between the boys in custody and a new suspect who is himself being questioned in connection with all five cases.
If it turns out that there is no connection between the two matters, police will be obliged to offer the public a more thorough explanation regarding their investigations, to date. While we sympathise with old timers who say that the police should not be grilled by media, we counter that those days are long gone when the public will accept as gospel whatever the police report.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
