Ten golden rules for dealing with the press
by Glenn Wicks, of Derbyshire Police

Imagine having the police and the press on your back at the same time. The job of Force Press Officer is not for the faint-hearted. But, as Glenn Wicks discovered, it is often educational and occasionally entertaining. He recorded his Ten Golden Rules on police-press relations to mark his transfer from the Derbyshire Constbulary press office.

This is the second of three articles. To read the first, click here

My fourth Golden Rule is one taught by Chief Superintendent Louis Munn, the PRO who handled the press at Dunblane when the five-year-olds were shot in school: “You need to feed the beast.” He was faced with 500-600 journalists who arrived at the scene within 12 hours of the shooting.

We need to acknowledge that, however pleasant and professional journalists may be, they still have to produce their stories and that has to be done to deadline. But the maxim is undoubtedly true: if you feed the beast, then it won’t bite you.

My best example of that was a skull that was found on waste ground near Derby. All the experts had been gathered, including specialist police dogs brought in from another force. They searched the area, found a few bones and indicated that the rest of the body was definitely not there.

There was an archaeologist who could help us to dig and recover parts, as well as date how long something had been in the ground. There was an entomologist, an insect specialist, who could estimate the time of death. And there was the police surgeon, who tried to tell us the sex, age and, hopefully, the cause of death. He not only certifies death but give us an idea of when death occurred.

Identification of the skull was a real problem, especially as we found no clothes, wallet or other articles that would give us a clue. This team of professionals had two main objectives: Who is this person and how did they die?

They all had no doubt as to what the bottom line was: the skull was probably female, it was historical, from many years ago, the bones found nearby were probably human and the rest of the body was not at the scene.

I briefed the press accordingly and remember spending nine hours giving continual broadcasts as more information unfolded. Privately, to the media I could say that we thought the skull had probably been taken by a fox from a tomb.Thirteen days later, I was left holding a press conference with the same journalists as the true facts had now emerged. The body had been identified by dental records as a man, not a woman, who had been missing from home for the last three months. The “human” bones found nearby were those of a goat and a search by a mountain rescue puppy, which had never before found anyone, found the rest of the body 50 yards away!

That’s when my Fifth Golden Rule came into play; “Everything in this business is based on personal contacts, which in turn are based on honesty and integrity.” The journalists knew that both conferences were based on information we gave them sincerely and there was never at any stage in the media any criticism of the force or the investigators involved.

So the Sixth Golden Rule comes in: “If you are going to get hung up on telling the truth, under no circumstances let anyone find out!”

This has been reinforced to me many times when in training exercises I play the part of the pseudo-media. In a whole range of exercises, ranging from emergency planning or terrorist incidents, when police officers are put under pressure they so often fall back on telling porkies. It is all so obvious through that all-seeing eye, the lens of a camera.

As a breed, police officers tend to be very good at dealing with victims and that includes protecting them, particular from intrusive journalists. We hate it when we are with the family of someone who has died and a journalist from the local paper knocks at the door. Well, journalists hate it too. They get sent out on these “death knocks” and never know what the reactions of the family will be. Sometimes the family (or accompanying PC) will slam the door in their face – but often relatives will want to tell the world about how lovely the dead person was.

My best example of that was the death of a 13-year-old girl who took her own life because she was being bullied. Coincidentally, her death came shortly after that of Princess Diana, a time when the media were getting a particular bad press themselves. The Press Complaints Commission had redrawn the Code of Practice which prohibited harassment and intrusion into grief or shock and nobody wanted to be the first to breach the code.

On the morning of her death, the sergeant interviewing her parents contacted me and asked that we gave the parents some protection from the media. I rang around all the news editors and they agreed that they would not approach the household. Little did we know that the parents would return home and hold an impromptu press conference in their house.

Journalists began to arrive from all over the country as news of the death went out “on the wires” and the family began to realise that as far as “feeding the beast” was concerned, they wished it were a little more anorexic.

They were also beginning to regret allowing a German film crew into the Chapel of Rest to take footage of their child.

The media backed off again until the day of the girl’s funeral, when they had some serious concerns about not wanting to intrude in the family’s grieving. A news agency had one of their photographers outside who was a young, good looking man who had gone down well with the family. He found himself being beckoned into the house and asked to take some photographs. “It’s OK,” said Dad, “I’ve got the lid off,” and a roll of film was dutifully taken.

The last time I was at the family home these photos of their daughter, beautifully framed by lilies, were blown up around the walls of their home. So, my Seventh Golden Rule: “Don’t assume you know what the reaction of people will be to the media.”

To be continued…

Have you got a story to tell about your change of career direction?
E-mail us now