Marketing Community Policing in the News: A Missed Opportunity?

Marketing community policing through the media is not easy, because stories about long-range strategies lack the human drama and immediacy of crime stories. This NIJ Research for Practice investigates the relationship between the police and the media and how that relationship affects coverage of community policing in newspapers and on television. The study found that, in general, coverage of community policing is favorable, media access to the police is not a problem, and police-media relations are good. The report identifies barriers to better media handling of community policing and discusses implications for police public information officers. The report concludes that police could explore the possibility of using the news media as one—but not the sole—component of a broad community policing outreach strategy.