Media awareness workshop for Police

The members of the Cook Islands Police Department need to be more open because, as public servants, they are accountable to the taxpayer when it comes to performing their jobs. And the best way to achieve that transperancy is by developing a professional working relationship with the media.
That was the message delivered today (Wednesday) by Police Commissioner Maara Tetava in his opening remarks at a media awareness workshop organized by the Pacific Police Development Program.
Speaking to a group of fellow police officers in the Parekura Conference Centre, Tetava emphasised that the department “needs to work with the media so members of the public are better informed about what we are doing and what is happening in their country”.
Mark Ney, a member of the Australian Federal Police, explained that the Pacific Police Development Program was set up specifically for the benefit of Pacific Islanders and is being slowly rolled out to all the nations in the region.
“The programme’s meant to help police manage their media relationships and provide a better service to the community,” he said.
Ney said the media in invaluable as far as providing safety messages to the community, while, in the same process, ensuring the public is aware of what the police are attempting to achieve.
“In terms of management performance and accountability of police services, the media also plays a role in terms of making sure the police are actually doing a good job,” he said.
“If the police are doing their job well, the community needs to know that,” he added. “Conversely, if the police aren’t doing a terribly good job, the media often find that out and let the community know. We’re trying to reinforce both of those issues with the police services.”
The Pacific Police Development Program is working to break down the barriers between the media and the police. The idea is to help police understand the media has a job to do.
“And part of the job is to report on crime issues in communities and issues that are affecting the general population,” Ney said. “By running these sorts of programmes, hopefully the police and media can work better together in terms of getting that information out.”
Ney said he hasn’t had time to fully access the dynamic between the Cook Islands police and media, “but it appears that the media and the police have a relatively good relationship here and, hopefully, we can help them build on that”.
The workshop runs through Friday.

By John Ireland

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