I am not sure that anybody can truly appreciate the position of public information officer without walking in their shoes for a day. That is true for many other positions as well, but public information officer is one that is constantly overlooked and probably under appreciated.
What does the public information officer do? Well, that is a tremendous question. One of my favorite television shows was one that ran for 7 years starting back in the late 90's. I actually didn't start watching it until the 2002-2003 time frame and even then it took a while for me to get into watching it in its complete state. Now, I own the DVD's and have watched the entire series more times than I care to really admit. The show was the West Wing. A show that followed the Presidential life of Josiah Bartlett, a democrat from New Hampshire. Now the show followed all the senior staff almost equally, but one face that consistently stood out was that of CJ Craig, the President's Press Secretary. She mentions that after the President, she is the most visible person in the West Wing. One episode follows the change in the delivery of news from the time of President Truman on. They talk about how the press secretaries of old had it good in the fact that the news cycle was very controlled and didn't have people watching all the time. Now, press secretaries in the West Wing have to ensure they are able to cover at any hour of any day.
Public Information Officers are much the same way. When it comes to public viewing of the fire department, the Public Information Officer is typically the first and only person they see on the news. On a day to day basis they are ensuring the business of the department is disseminated to the news, they may be available for interviews on new projects going on, but the daily life of the PIO isn't overtly over dramatized. That is until something such as tonight happens. As many of you #COMBOMEDIC readers know, the Gwinnett Fire Department in Georgia faced a unique situation where five of their firefighters were taken hostage at gunpoint. Law enforcement officers were immediately called to the scene and those trained with the special weapons and tactics teams geared up for a potential "breach" entry. The media quickly spread the information like wildfire and it wasn't long before Huffington Post, the Washington Post, and JEMS magazine were carrying the feeds. Reporters were swarming the areas and it was up to the police and fire PIO's to keep the media reporting the facts and minimize the threat to operational security on the scene.
The media is doing what the people want them to do. While the consumer is quick to say that they are tired of negative news in the media, the polling data that shows how many people watch shows every night tell a different story. I would assure you that the ratings report for the news stations carrying live feeds on this situation were the highest they have been in months and maybe even years. A single station stated they had 12 reports on the scene trying to gain information for the public to use. These individuals are trying to get to the bottom of the situation, and the PIO is wanting to give them the information, but it may not be in the best interest to release specific bits of information. On the flip side, fail to give adequate information may lead you to alienate some of the reports and have them trying to gain the information in ways that will hurt the scene.
In the time that I have been in the service I have been friends with three different PIO's all of which had their strengths and weaknesses. I have witness some be the best friend with the media on a scene and lose all control on the next. But for better or worse, we can really thank the PIO's that control the media for those in the thick of the fight for helping control the flow of information on our behalf. When they needed to stop broadcasting things they did in the interest of the firefighters safety. That was good PIO work.
Keep those involved tonight in your thoughts.
Take Care and Stay Safe
The Combomedic
twitter.com/dsblev
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