John Drinnan: Police PR cops some flak

Incoming Police commissioner, Mike Bush.

Expert believes brand remains strong but force's communication strategy is failing and needs to be reviewed.

Police top brass have suffered from communications cock-ups in the past 12 months. Yet they insist there is no need to change the way they talk to the media and the public.

Police gave out incorrect information on the muddled Roast Busters investigation. And after publicity in the Herald last month, they changed a road safety commercial that wrongly blamed a truck driver for a serious motorway crash.

A bigger illustration of the problems in police PR was the eulogy at the funeral for Detective Inspector Bruce Hutton, written by communications staff, which said he had "integrity beyond reproach".

A Royal Commission of Inquiry found Hutton had planted evidence used to wrongly convict Arthur Allan Thomas of the 1970 murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe. The highly political eulogy was delivered by Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Bush, who will replace Peter Marshall as Commissioner in April.

This week, as police announced Bush's selection, he got things off to a strange start by saying he regretted the eulogy comment. A Thomas supporter complained that the apology was "half-hearted" - ensuring the PR damage lasts even longer.

Last year Commissioner Marshall came under intense criticism for police handling of the Roast Busters case.

AUT senior lecturer in public relations Aline Sandilands says the overall police brand remains strong. But she believes the force's communication strategy is failing and needs to be reviewed.

Police have appeared closed and unwilling to be transparent, she says, and the public is becoming confused about what is going on inside the force. Both Marshall and Bush considered queries from the Herald but dismissed questions about whether there was a need to review the communications strategy.

A police spokesman said: "The police deal with many thousands of requests for information and produce multiple media campaigns on a variety of channels each year. We don't get it right every single time, and we address and fix these issues as they arise."

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