Government public information officers ease or hinder the flow of public information

By Lyda Longa, Staff Writer

If you read and watch the news — especially in times of disaster or when a crime is under investigation — it’s likely you’ve been fed the information by a trained professional.

These government public relations officials are voices of your city, your police, your courthouse — even on a normal day. They’re the people who often provide the public and media access to government records and buffer government employees from the public.

But are public information officers there to give the public everything it’s entitled to? Or are they there to mold information and release whatever it is that their agencies believe the public should know?

It may depend on which agency you speak to, said Kelly McBride, an ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute, a media training center in St. Petersburg.

“There are some great public information officers out there,” McBride said. “But, there are also public information officers with conflicting loyalties.

“They are sometimes more loyal to their agencies and their bosses than they are to the public’s interest,” McBride said.

And while more and more agencies in Volusia and Flagler counties are adding these employees to their staffs, the assessment of their roles has been mixed.

In Volusia County’s two biggest cities, the public information position got off to rocky starts in 2005.

After the positions were created last year in Daytona Beach and Deltona, the first full-time information officers didn’t last a year before resigning.

But Molly Justice, information officer in a position added last year for judges in the local 7th Judicial Circuit, is still in the job and has risen to president of a local advocacy group for such professionals.

Adrienne Moore of the Florida Public Relations Association says that when dealing with the public, spokespeople should adhere to three basic rules: provide an immediate response to the public, release correct information and present the complete picture.

When it comes to records — documents, e-mails, tapes — Florida law requires public agencies release them.

Though the Florida public records laws provide for some exceptions regarding certain pieces of information, all in all, the public is entitled to view a document that’s generated by a public agency, even if the information is written on a napkin.

But nothing in the public records law states that a public information officer, though paid by the public, must actually provide verbal information, said Barbara Petersen of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee.

And these days especially, according to McBride, there has been somewhat of a trickle-down effect from Washington, D.C., where several federal agencies are concerned with how the release of certain tidbits of information will affect them politically.

“That has trickled down to public information officers on the local level,” McBride said. “Everyone has started using very manipulative tactics to release information.

“You’ll see where many public information officers are becoming more and more concerned about the political damage that can be done with the release of information,” McBride said.

Leaks are a big concern, McBride said, referring to someone within an agency who lets out information that is being kept from the public.

Most law enforcement agencies have a public information officer because they don’t want their personnel speaking out of turn or saying the wrong thing about a case, victim, suspect or another police officer.

In addition, police spokespeople are often limited in what they can say about certain high-profile cases that are under investigation.

“Different pieces of information coming out is a concern,” said Sgt. Kenny Hayes, the spokesman for Ormond Beach police. “We’re covered by state statute on what we can and can’t release. That’s why having one person who knows exactly what we can or can’t say, is important.”

Sgt. Al Tolley, the public information officer for Daytona Beach police, said he tries to “stay within the four corners of a document,” when speaking to the media or the general public.

“The inaccuracy in information is what we’re most concerned with,” Tolley said. “Speculation, gut feelings or hunches cannot enter into it when you’re giving out information.

“There could also be some inappropriate jargon or statements coming from someone in the department,” Tolley added.

McBride says it’s acceptable when police omit information that’s part of an ongoing investigation, because letting it out could jeopardize their work.

However, she also said there are some spokespersons who act as “barriers” when the media or the general public is attempting to obtain documents.

Most police agencies are obligated, by law, to release basic incident reports to the media and anyone else. Police however, are allowed by state law, to block out certain pieces of information from those reports, if they believe it’s pertinent to an ongoing investigation.

Hayes of the Ormond Beach Police Department says it’s important for one person to know what the media and the public are looking for when asking for documents or information.

That’s true, says Adria Harper of the First Amendment Foundation, but sometimes the convenience of having one point person to go to for documents can backfire.

“Sometimes people do not have direct access to the person who is the custodian of the records,” Harper said. “We have run into the issue that sometimes if a spokesperson is not available, the public cannot have access to the records because that’s the only person who is allowed to release them.”

According to state law, the custodian of a public record — whether that person is the public information officer or not — is required to release a document to the public.

But some clerical employees at many public agencies are not aware of that and they end up withholding a document or record that should be released.

Most public information officers in the area say they try to do that within the parameters of their agencies and the requirements of state law.

“Along with a public service at taxpayer expense, comes the absolute responsibility to be accountable for our actions,” said Gary Davidson, a spokesman with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. “The public has a right to know what we do and how we spend our tax dollars.”

Reproduced courtesy of the Daytona Beach News-Journal
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