Why Invite the Press?
Getting the media to LIKE what you are doing as a department, isn’t difficult, it’s just different. You literally have to hand-feed them what you are doing… for the community and with training your department. Every time we deliver RITE Training at a host department, we have them invite the press to see the training for themselves. Some come, some don’t… but invite them whether you think they’ll come or not.
In his very effective press release, Chief Scott (Notre Dame College Police) got the attention of TWO media outlets by saying this…
“… hosting a train-the-trainer course on racial intelligence with de-escalation and cultural diversity training for law enforcement officers. Media are welcome and invited to attend, with the best photo opportunities on the first half of the first day. Course instructors from RITE Academy will be available for interviews, along with Police Chief Jeffrey Scott and students from various law enforcement agencies throughout Ohio.”
One Press Release, Two Media Invites!
IdeaStream, WVIZ in Cleveland got wind of the press release and immediately invited Chief Scott to a sit-down interview with co-founder of RITE, Randy Friedman. Getting your department positive media coverage, especially TV coverage is priceless, because your community wants to be in-the-know.
Tawana Roberts, of The News-Herald, showed up on day one of class at 8:30, and wrote an article called, “Law enforcement officers receive racial intelligence training at Notre Dame College.” Read it here
[bctt tweet=”Reduce negative police press, by giving your local media some #positivepolicing to print!” username=”RiteAcademy”]By Chief Scott sending out just one press release, Notre Dame College Police Department received FREE media coverage from two media outlets. That’s powerful!
Press Releases GET Media Attention
The press releases below, were all sent out to let their communities know, “We care about you! Here’s the officer training we are doing to make our department better for you, our community.” They can all be found on the RITE Blog page, or on the RITE News Coverage page.
Get Social in Your Community
More police departments today have a social media presence than ever before. The three most common are, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It’s a great way to stay connected to the community. If you are looking to better connect with your community, look no further than social media.
Here are 5 reasons to Get Social:
- Builds trust within your department and community relationship
- Creates relationship building by interacting and encouraging comments and questions
- Transparency that increases the department’s reputation
- Provides a forum to share safety tips and get comments
- Spreads information quickly to protect your community, help catch suspects, find missing persons, etc.
About
Thank you IdeaStream, WVIZ and Tawana Roberts, of The News-Herald, for covering this important training. We encourage more media to cover stories like RITE Training, as there is a lot of good being done for law enforcement. When we improve our officers lives first… the department morale improves, and community trust increases.
RITE Training helps de-escalate 95% of calls. Unique cultural diversity with EI & SI improves communication, builds Career resiliency, and improves Department morale. See our EVENTS page for a training near you, or become a Host site! Contact us about TRAINING for your agency.
