Something different, something new, something that I would never imagine seeing before in my everyday life, these are the 911 Emergency Center and the Public Information Office at Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
A memorable moment of my visit to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office was time spend with Brad Herron, Communication Center 911 commander, and his team of professionals. “One big family” of 155 employees which annually collect 1.5 million calls from the public in the law enforcement outlet of Hillsborough County. Those well trained professionals control where, when, and how the police exercises their law enforcement power.
According to public records all call recorded at the 911 Emergency Center are public record with the exception of phone numbers and addresses who are edited for safety reasons.
Across the street from the Communication Center, Deputy Larry McKinnon, Public Information Office, and Cristal Bermudez, Media Relations, work together to create a better communication between the media and the police. An interesting fact that stood out in the presentation was the police department’s effort to become a news outlet. When and how is this happening? I can’t really answer this question, but Mr. McKinnon was very positive and motivated when he explained how the police feed the media through media alerts with the latest information. He made a major point that they are trying to have a smooth relationship with the media because those two power houses need to serve the people the best possible way. On one side the police wants factual information presented to the public, and on the other side, the media wants cooperation when they are trying to collect the news.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has made a tremendous improvement in obtaining their public records. Now all reports are filed electronically and they are maintained on hard drives. The police is now part of the “Go Green” campaign and they’ve saved $40 000 of paper cost.
During the lecture Mr. McKinnon and Mrs. Bermudez emphasized the importance of Statue 119, which represents the standard operating procedure for news releases and media cooperation from the Sheriff’s Office. This stature represents how public records are accessed. One of the important facts for SRA’s criminal reports is that it can’t be filed and accessed before the investigation is complete. Those reports are first available at the jail records and later in the clerk’s office. According to the 119 statue, DUI reports are available in the Sheriff’s Office records. Florida traffic crash reports are also available there after 60 day of the accident. Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office web site is another public record outlet which gives access to press releases as well as individual’s charge reports.
Overall, I was really impressed how Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office communicates with the media. I also admire those special people who put a tremendous effort to work on one of those hot chairs at 911 Emergency Center.
A memorable moment of my visit to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office was time spend with Brad Herron, Communication Center 911 commander, and his team of professionals. “One big family” of 155 employees which annually collect 1.5 million calls from the public in the law enforcement outlet of Hillsborough County. Those well trained professionals control where, when, and how the police exercises their law enforcement power.
According to public records all call recorded at the 911 Emergency Center are public record with the exception of phone numbers and addresses who are edited for safety reasons.
Across the street from the Communication Center, Deputy Larry McKinnon, Public Information Office, and Cristal Bermudez, Media Relations, work together to create a better communication between the media and the police. An interesting fact that stood out in the presentation was the police department’s effort to become a news outlet. When and how is this happening? I can’t really answer this question, but Mr. McKinnon was very positive and motivated when he explained how the police feed the media through media alerts with the latest information. He made a major point that they are trying to have a smooth relationship with the media because those two power houses need to serve the people the best possible way. On one side the police wants factual information presented to the public, and on the other side, the media wants cooperation when they are trying to collect the news.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has made a tremendous improvement in obtaining their public records. Now all reports are filed electronically and they are maintained on hard drives. The police is now part of the “Go Green” campaign and they’ve saved $40 000 of paper cost.
During the lecture Mr. McKinnon and Mrs. Bermudez emphasized the importance of Statue 119, which represents the standard operating procedure for news releases and media cooperation from the Sheriff’s Office. This stature represents how public records are accessed. One of the important facts for SRA’s criminal reports is that it can’t be filed and accessed before the investigation is complete. Those reports are first available at the jail records and later in the clerk’s office. According to the 119 statue, DUI reports are available in the Sheriff’s Office records. Florida traffic crash reports are also available there after 60 day of the accident. Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office web site is another public record outlet which gives access to press releases as well as individual’s charge reports.
Overall, I was really impressed how Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office communicates with the media. I also admire those special people who put a tremendous effort to work on one of those hot chairs at 911 Emergency Center.
I agreee with a lot of what is said above. The atmosphere for the group was that it was a family, and when one thing happened to the group it affected everyone. I think that is why they are so successful in getting their job done.
ReplyDeleteThe sheriff's office is definitely a big family. Not only are public records important to the job that they do everyday but also important in keeping the information flowing and protecting one another. It is important for them to keep an open relationship with the media and its great to see that the sheriff's office is exploring social media to blast information out even faster.
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ReplyDeleteGood job on the picture use. The visual was a nice touch to the blog and added some creativity. I agree with a lot of what you said and like the information provided. You def. had more precise notes than I did. This blog showed me that I need to step my game up.
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