Law Enforcement's Relationship Complexities With The Media

Law Enforcement’s Relationship Complexities with the Media
An Introduction Law enforcement agencies have always had a complex relationship with the media since their establishments. Dr. Kingshott (2011) suggests that the public shares a bond with law enforcement through the implementation of community oriented policing—which is utilized in most agencies today. That being said, it is discussed further in his article how it is important that each one of the partners knows what the other one is doing. This, in essence, is why there must be a relationship between law enforcement and the media—the media must update the public on the status of its partner. Now that we know why there is a relationship between the two, we must ask—what are the full

Many things can fall under this category, from giving advice to prevent a crime from happening all the way to trying to lessen public fear. Big cities have a bigger risk of experiencing a riot, so the use of the media may be law enforcement’s biggest weapon against these kinds of issues. The television news stations may be the greatest form of media that law enforcement can utilize. This is proven through statistics – when people read something, only 10% of what they read will be retained. On the other hand, they retain 20% of what they hear, and better yet, 50% of what they hear and read at the same time (Kingshott). This may be why news channels have a small banner under the anchor, displaying what the story title is – people may be more drawn to it and will retain the information

Both careers appeal go-getting, determined individuals that have a longing to uncover the whole story and help people. Both professions can be secretive of how they undergo their work and are criticized often by the people that they serve. They don’t do well to this criticism because they feel like they aren’t understood very well. Above all, they know the risks of the career they have chosen and know that play a large role in keeping the public safe. The media does work closely with law enforcement and vice-versa; however, there are many complexities in their relationship. It is understood now that many of the complexities stem from the different goals of each institution, yet they certainly do need one another to succeed. Yes, the media can have negative influences on the community regarding law enforcement, but the positive ones can hopefully make the negatives worth it. If we didn’t have the media’s influence on the public, on law enforcement agencies, and on legislation, who knows where we would still be regarding public support and police