There was a b brief news story on KQED radio today that highlights a PR firm named Cole Pro Media that works with police departments to help them fine tune their PR messaging. In the intro to the story, they listed Menlo Park PD as among its many users.
The story claims that the firm is especially useful when communicating situations of officer involved shootings or other violence, and they further claim that the company helps these departments create narratives that place the police in the most positive light and fault to be fully transparent, especially when departments release body camera footage.
I have no idea if our police department has ever used this firm. But the implication from the story is that those who do follow their scripted advice are not being fully honest with the public. This may be worthy of inquiry with the Chief and their communications officers, and a review of the ground rules for how the PD is to deal with such news with the goal to be fully transparent and non-biased in its reporting to the public.
The url for the KQED story is below. This does not include the intro which names MPPD as among the 30 or so agencies in the Bay Area that use Cole Pro Media. However, an article on the Reporter does list MPPD: https://www.thereporter.com/2021/05/16/police-pr-video-machine-criticized/
https://www.kqed.org/news/11898051/when-police-need-pr-help-many-turn-to-one-firm-in-vacaville
Regards,
Steve Taffee
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Steve Taffee
600 Willow Rd Unit 10
Menlo Park, CA 94025-2676
steve.taffee@icloud.com
