"SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE"
Tim Burrows
Traffic Safety and Law Enforcement Advocate, Public Speaker and Former National Law Enforcement Liaison Program Manager at Governors Highway Safety Association and Retired Police Officer
With everything that happened in the news the last couple of days regarding the term / object "Suspicious Package", an incredible opportunity has presented itself to professional law enforcement communicators.
Use the national attention and trending topic to create content that is extremely valuable right now.
Educate Your Citizens
Use this opportunity to educate your citizens about some key topics.
- What is a suspicious package?
- What deems a package to be considered suspicious?
- What should people be looking for to determine that a package is suspicious?
- What should you do when you discover / receive a suspicious package?
Educate Your Personnel
The men and women of your law enforcement agency will be getting the call when one is discovered in your area.
- What procedures are in place for dealing with a suspicious package?
- Who needs to be notified?
- What information should your call takers be providing to callers?
Use The Experts
Partners like the Postal Service, Federal Investigative Agencies, Fire, EMT, Hospitals can all be used to provide expert information to back up your efforts and lend a higher degree of credibility and expertise on many subjects all relating to a suspicious package.
If you don't have your own CBRNE, Bomb Squad or other specialized unit to offer local perspectives there will be one of your partnering agencies that will and reaching out to them is a great way to keep up the relationships you need.
Evergreen Content
This is an opportunity to use the news cycle to create the content for better attention but try to keep the content you create evergreen so that it can be used again and again.
Having a repository of content on your website is a great way to keep it relevant at a moments notice.
Invite your local media to cover what you're putting out. Perhaps you can even make the content as an information package for them to distribute on your behalf - your own produced news.
Always look for opportunities to create content built around public safety for your community using something that already has their attention. Use it to re-direct them to your information for their well being.
It helps build relationships, trust and adds to the legitimacy for what you are doing on a daily basis to serve them.