Instructing First Responder Public Information Officers

At the end of 2022, the Law Enforcement Innovation Center launched a Master of Public Information Officer certification. The certification is geared toward first responder PIOS throughout Tennessee.

LEIC Training Specialist Jeff Hundley and Sgt. Evie West, PIO for the Cleveland (TN) Police Department join this episode to talk about the program and its curriculum. 

Transcript

Audio file

Edited Year 2 Episode 4 PIO_mixdown.mp3

Transcript

00:00:03 Susan Robertson

Hi and welcome to In touch with Tennessee

00:00:06 Susan Robertson

A podcast of the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service.

00:00:11 Susan Robertson

In the event of a community emergency, citizens often want to hear what's going on from the first responders. Realizing this, the UT Law Enforcement Innovation Center or LEIC developed the 40-hour Master Public Information Officer certification.

00:00:30 Susan Robertson

The peace officer standards and Training Commission post approved course is for law enforcement personnel who serve as public information officers or P I/O.

00:00:43 Susan Robertson

Or command staff, who in the event of an incident, addressed the public through media platforms PIOS interact with the public through press releases, media releases or media and press conferences.

00:00:56 Susan Robertson

They also work to positively represent their agency through social media platforms, joining us today.

00:01:03 Susan Robertson

For Jeff Hundley, training specialist with the law Enforcement Innovation Center.

00:01:08 Susan Robertson

And Sergeant Evie West with the Cleveland, TN Police Department and an instructor in the Public Information Officer Course.

00:01:17 Susan Robertson

Thank you both for joining.

00:01:17 Evie West

Thank you.

00:01:17 Evie West

I'm glad to be here

00:01:19 Jeff Hundley

Thanks, Susan, for the invitation.

00:01:21 Susan Robertson

So, Jeff, can you give us some background on why this course was developed?

00:01:27 Jeff Hundley

Sure. Initially just in creating new programs for LEIC, you begin to see that most of our public information officers in the state, if they're being trained, receiving training at all.

00:01:40 Jeff Hundley

That training primarily comes from someone out of state, so FBI, LEDA or FEMA, some other programs that have public information officer programs and so started with a conversation with our Executive Director Rick Scarbrough about developing one from LEIC that would be university based.

00:01:58 Jeff Hundley

And at the time, I really didn't.

00:02:01 Jeff Hundley

Know what direction it would go and until I met with Evie early on and got her thoughts about it.

00:02:07 Susan Robertson

OK, so you've already awarded your first group of certifications and have another class coming up this spring.

00:02:13 Susan Robertson

How is the response?

00:02:16 Jeff Hundley

The response has been amazing.

00:02:18 Jeff Hundley

So, we started out with a a cap for a class of 30.

00:02:23 Jeff Hundley

We actually awarded 30 master Public Information Officer certificates.

00:02:29 Jeff Hundley

In the fall.

00:02:30 Jeff Hundley

This spring class has turned out to be an exceptional class as well. We have 35 people enrolled in it and we're starting to see some interest from out-of-state recipients and participants. For this cohort, we have six other states that are participating.

00:02:49 Susan Robertson

Oh, wow.

00:02:50 Susan Robertson

So talk to us about the curriculum for the certification.

00:02:55 Jeff Hundley

So, we really wanted this course to be challenging.

00:02:59 Jeff Hundley

So, one of the one of the best public information officers in the business in Tennessee and beyond is Evie West.

00:03:07 Jeff Hundley

And so I initially sat down with Evie, drove to Cleveland, and we just put up posters on the wall and started brainstorming.

00:03:15 Jeff Hundley

You know what a program would look like?

00:03:17 Jeff Hundley

Some programs that she has been through in the past as well.

00:03:21 Jeff Hundley

And so I met with her.

00:03:24 Jeff Hundley

We talked about our wish list and what would be there.

00:03:27 Jeff Hundley

And then I also met with Captain Tyler Chandler from the Mount Juliet Police Department, who pretty much did the same thing with me.

00:03:34 Jeff Hundley

Just help us.

00:03:35 Jeff Hundley

Playing through the stages, but it goes through everything from agency branding to crisis communication.

00:03:41 Jeff Hundley

We do an emotional intelligence assessment as well for the group we also.

00:03:47 Jeff Hundley

talk about social media.

00:03:51 Jeff Hundley

We talked about media.

00:03:52 Jeff Hundley

They have every day.

00:03:53 Jeff Hundley

They have an opportunity to do a media lab where they can just go in and practice doing a media conference as well in the program.

00:04:01 Jeff Hundley

And then we added for this cohort a mission critical communication piece and that's just about.

00:04:08 Jeff Hundley

Being able to communicate up and down the chain of command.

00:04:13 Susan Robertson

So Evie, that was quite an intro that.

00:04:15 Susan Robertson

Jeff gave you.

00:04:18 Susan Robertson

You also serve as the Cleveland Police Department's Public Information Officer. Can you talk about the importance of such a position?

00:04:27 Evie West

I'd love to.

00:04:27 Evie West

Thank you, Susan.

00:04:28 Evie West

So that job holds, it's not just the delivery of important information to your community, but it holds a level of respect and responsibility and trustworthiness that your community has to have in you.

00:04:41 Evie West

And so I try as hard as I can to teach that to the students.

00:04:46 Evie West

I love the fact that LEIC has decided to host this class because it is. LEIC has.

00:04:55 Evie West

I'm telling you that it has such a great reputation among the law enforcement community and the leadership courses and all the different courses, multiculturalism courses, cultural diversity, all the courses that they teach, there is just such a high-level of respect for this program.

00:05:11 Evie West

Jeff Hundley is a mover and a shaker.

00:05:14 Evie West

I've told him this.

00:05:16 Evie West

He takes an idea, runs with it, and makes it happen.

00:05:20 Evie West

I am so surprised.

00:05:21 Evie West

I remember when he reached out to me last year about starting this, I thought.

00:05:26 Evie West

That it would.

00:05:26 Evie West

Take a lot longer for him to develop because it is.

00:05:31 Evie West

There is a lot of information associated with what is expected.

00:05:34 Evie West

What is the mission?

00:05:36 Evie West

What is the objective of a public information officer, and in reality it does hold a lot of responsibility because your community has to trust you.

00:05:45 Evie West

They have to trust your word, and so you pretty much are the one that is delivering this news.

00:05:53 Evie West

And people are asking what's next.

00:05:56 Evie West

Like, how do we respond to what you're telling us?

00:05:58 Evie West

If whether you have, you know, someone on the loose where maybe your community is in danger or maybe something where I live in a small community where people are like, OK, something's going on here and we, you know, we need to know like.

00:06:16 Evie West

How do we proceed next?

00:06:18 Evie West

What do we do?

00:06:18 Evie West

Are we looking for a suspect?

00:06:19 Evie West

Is our community safe?

00:06:21 Evie West

All these questions your community is looking at you to answer, and if they don't trust you, if they don't, don't believe your word, then it could ruin it, could ruin everything.

00:06:31 Evie West

So there's such a responsibility in this.

00:06:34 Evie West

That's why I am so grateful that Jeff and LEIC has decided to bring people in from across the state of Tennessee to invest in the dos and don'ts of this position to help these communities grow and strengthen as they also become the mouthpiece or the messenger.

00:06:53 Evie West

To their communities.

00:06:55 Susan Robertson

Right.

00:06:56 Susan Robertson

So talk to me a little bit about your background.

00:07:01 Susan Robertson

Did you have the background in public information and public relations or is this something?

00:07:08 Evie West

It's funny that you asked that, Susan. No, I actually, I don't. I I came to Cleveland TN in 1996 from Southern California.

00:07:17 Evie West

And I came here.

00:07:18 Evie West

I made a lot of bad choices as a young girl from 12 to 19. I was involved in gangs, went through two teenage pregnancies, crisis pregnancies unplanned.

00:07:28 Evie West

I was an absolute

00:07:29 Evie West

whirlwind of a mess and so my parents, literally against my will, put me on a plane.

00:07:35 Evie West

And sent me to Cleveland, TN to attend Lee University.

00:07:38 Evie West

And when I got here, I had no ambition to go to school.

00:07:41 Evie West

I had no ambition.

00:07:42 Evie West

To do like.

00:07:43 Evie West

To strive for anything.

00:07:45 Evie West

However, when I got here and I kind of got in the groove of.

00:07:48 Evie West

Things I brought my son.

00:07:50 Evie West

I was 19 years old.

00:07:51 Evie West

I had a 2-year-old son, I came here, and I decided that this was the place that I was supposed to be.

00:07:56 Evie West

I mean, I I knew it.

00:07:58 Evie West

I'm even though it's far away from home.

00:08:00 Evie West

I was in a very volatile situation because.

00:08:03 Evie West

I had no money, and I was trying to make it and trying to, I was also pregnant my first semester at Lee and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be and and even went through crisis pregnancy where I placed my son for adoption and hid that pregnancy from everybody.

00:08:18 Evie West

It just

00:08:19 Evie West

Unraveled, but I came to a crossroads in my life where I had to decide like I have a son looking up to me and move forward from my

00:08:27 Evie West

My past choices?

00:08:29 Evie West

To move toward what is best for, for myself and my son. And so I actually decided to pursue intercultural studies because my dad is from Mexico. My mom is from Virginia.

00:08:40 Evie West

They actually met in Cleveland, TN in the 60s.

00:08:43 Susan Robertson

Oh wow.

00:08:43 

And so I, yeah.

00:08:45 Evie West

So I decided that I I wanted to do mission work in Mexico, Central or South America.

00:08:51 Evie WestJ

And so that was my goal. And so when I finished, when I finished graduate from Lee, I actually had $60,000 

00:08:58 Evie West

In school debt.

00:09:00 Evie West

And so I was like, well, I can't leave now.

00:09:02 Evie West

I have to work.

00:09:03 Evie West

So, I had been sharing my story with several local high schools just to kind of preventative to try to get kids like, you know, to not make bad choices and to say, hey, this is what I did.

00:09:14 Evie West

This is how it affected my life and so one of the teachers was a police officer for the Cleveland Police Department.

00:09:20 Evie West

And so when he asked me if I'd be interested in a job because of my choices from 12 to 19, I'd never even thought that the possibility of being a police officer was even real.

00:09:30 Evie West

But I thought, well, maybe I could be a secretary there.

00:09:33 Evie West

I came to fill an application out and realized that he wanted me to be a police officer.

00:09:38 Evie West

I I wrote everything.

00:09:40 Evie West

Down, I see.

00:09:41 Evie West

I was very vulnerable and kind of the things that I was involved in and what I've been exposed to the chief of police at that time gave me he gave me a shot and said, you know, you mess up and you're gone.

00:09:50 Evie West

And that was.

00:09:51 Evie West

22 years ago, and so I was on patrol. And then I became a school resource officer.

00:09:57 Evie West

And then I became kind of stagnant in my career of like.

00:09:59 Evie West

What am I going to do next?

00:10:00 Evie West

And so, I was looking to pursue other career opportunities when the chief of police called me and said, "would you like to be the public information officer?"

00:10:10 Evie West

I had no journalism background, normal, no marketing background, no PR experience.

00:10:15 Evie West

But I love people and because I love people, I think that's.

00:10:18 Evie West

Kind of, just me for.

00:10:19 Evie West

Worked and having a heart to to be in this position and really thrive.

00:10:23 Evie West

In this position.

00:10:24 Evie West

So my goal, my objective is to make.

00:10:29 Evie West

Really good relationships with people in my community, but also really good relationships with the media.

00:10:36 Evie West

And because I'm pretty much the face of the police department, when I stand in front whether I deliver bad news or good news, scary news or sad news, I want people to look at me and know that my heart is is for my community.

00:10:50 Evie West

My heart is for the victims.

00:10:52 Evie West

My heart is even for the suspects that make bad choices and have to find themselves in situations where, you know they may be locked up for life.

00:10:59 Evie West

Or, you know, something happens to them.

00:11:01 Evie West

I mean, I have to.

00:11:03 Evie West

demonstrate a heart of empathy, a heart of compassion for my community, a heart for people.

00:11:11 Evie West

And so, I think that has worked in my favor, and throughout the years, the experience, the do's, the don'ts, and the things I've kind of messed up on have been.

00:11:21 Evie West

Great life lessons for me.

00:11:23 Evie West

To continue moving in this position but becoming better and better.

00:11:27 Evie West

And that's the thing about LEIC

00:11:29 Evie West

I went

00:11:30 Evie West

Through the SELA class.

00:11:32 Evie West

I think they saw the potential in me adding to the program which they didn't need me, but they chose me and because it's such an honor for me to represent LEIC. When Jeff came to me and said, help me with this, I was like absolutely and to be.

00:11:48 Evie West

Chosen as an instructor in the Master Public Information Officer class.

00:11:53 Evie West

It's such a great honor for me to be able to represent LEIC and to be able to represent the Cleveland Police Department, to law enforcement officers across the nation who want to come and say I want to across Tennessee. Sorry.

00:12:05 Evie West

But hopefully across the nation, maybe that's prophetic.

00:12:08 Evie West

But I want.

00:12:09 Evie West

Them to go. Hey, how come you're such a great P? I/O tells your background. Do you have?

00:12:13 Evie West

Marketing or PR experience and then they say no, I went to LEIC master Public Information Officer school and I learned a tremendous amount of knowledge from my instructors and experience and the dos and don'ts. So I can best serve my community and my department.

00:12:31 Susan Robertson

Right. Wow, what a story.

00:12:33

So what would?

00:12:34 Susan Robertson

You say to anyone who might be considering enrolling in this course, someone who might not have the background in communications.

00:12:41 Susan Robertson

But is.

00:12:42 Evie West

Hands down.

00:12:43 Evie West

Yeah, hands down.

00:12:45 Evie West

Hands down.

00:12:45 Evie West

This is.

00:12:46 Evie West

This is one of the best classes.

00:12:48 Evie West

And it's funny because I haven't even.

00:12:49 Evie West

I didn't even attend as a student.

00:12:51 Evie West

I'm an instructor, but I I told Jeff I was like Jeff.

00:12:54 Evie West

How do I get this badge?

00:12:55 Evie West

You know, how do I?

00:12:56 Evie West

How do I want to be able to put this on

00:12:57 Evie West

My resume that I actually attended this class, even though I'm an instructor.

00:13:00 Evie West

In it. But I have gone to so many PO schools from 2008 until today and the conferences are great.

00:13:09 Evie West

Other other schools are great, but there is no other school that matches the caliber of excellence the LEC does when they teach the students based on the speakers.

00:13:20 Evie West

The instructors that come in the the information they give out, the hands-on experience, the food that they provide.

00:13:28 Evie West

It's just it.

00:13:29 Evie West

Is unreal and wish I would have

00:13:33 Evie West

had this opportunity to attend.

00:13:35 Evie West

Class in 2008 because I think it could have helped me tremendously in in my career as a public information officer, but I would say if a department doesn't have money, even reach out to LEIC, we'll try to scrounge something up or something, move it from another line item because this is not something you.

00:13:52 Evie West

Want to miss

00:13:53 Susan Robertson

Right, right.

00:13:54 Susan Robertson

So Jeff, tell us how people find out more information about the program.

00:14:00 Jeff Hundley

Sure. The the program you can go to our website leic.tennessee.edu. You can also send us an e-mail LEIC at tennessee.edu or you can also e-mail me at Jeff dot

00:14:12 Jeff Hundley

Hundley at tennessee.edu. You know, one of the things that I think is unique about our program is it is the first university-based program in the country and we are because of that it being university based. We have this, we have a this.

00:14:33 Jeff Hundley

University of Tennessee System group of resources that we can pull together and bring the very best.

00:14:39 Jeff Hundley

But you know Evie has such a relationship with her community in Cleveland that even when you have to address something, you know, negative about the Police Department, the media and Chattanooga and Cleveland trust that relationship because what she's developed and so that just comes across in the class.

00:14:56 Jeff Hundley

We've developed after the first class.

00:14:59 Jeff Hundley

An alumni association through that through with the CIO so they can connect with one another statewide and beyond.

00:15:06 Jeff Hundley

This state, and so we're seeing that grow, which is an awesome resource and probably one of the greatest things is testimonies days after our class.

00:15:15 Jeff Hundley

I got a text from Evie with a picture of of someone who was in the class that had a murder in their town.

00:15:22 Jeff Hundley

Like just days after the class was over and was already using the resources from that.

00:15:26 Jeff Hundley

Network and the people they met in class to move through that circumstance in that community, so valuable.

00:15:35 Jeff Hundley

We'd love to talk to anyone about it.

00:15:37 Jeff Hundley

The PO role is.

00:15:39 Jeff Hundley

And that is that is very necessary in today's policing.

00:15:43 Jeff Hundley

And so just having those resources available, we have passionate people who love who love to teach others and coach others.

00:15:51 Jeff Hundley

And so we'd love for anyone that's interested to to just be a part of it.

00:15:57 Susan Robertson

That is great.

00:15:58 Susan Robertson

Well, thank you both for joining us today.

00:16:00 Susan Robertson

This has been very informative.

00:16:03 Susan Robertson

And thank you.

00:16:04 Evie West

Thank you. Thank you.

00:16:06 Susan Robertson

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