Latest / Modern Gov Matters / Earning Trust in Law Enforcement Comms with Shea Haney
Transcript
- Sarah Loyd: Welcome to Modern Gov Matters. I'm Sarah Loyd, and this show is all about honest conversations with local government communicators about what's actually working, what's not, and the stuff that keeps you up at night. Modern Gov Matters is presented by CivAll, powered by Social News Desk. Law enforcement communications is one of the most high stakes arenas in local government. Every post, every press release, every moment of silence carries weight. Shea Haney is a PIO Sergeant at the Adams County Sheriff's Office in Colorado, and he's here to talk about what it really takes to earn trust, both from your community and from the deputies standing behind you. Welcome to the show, Shea. Shea Haney: Yeah, thanks for having me. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, of course. So you're relatively new to the PIO seat. So what did you do before this and how did you end up as the public face of the Adams County Sheriff's Office? Shea Haney: Yeah, so I've been our public information officer now for about eight months. Prior to that, I started in our jail. I started with the sheriff's office when I was 21, went to our after the academy and then patrol after that, detectives. ⁓ I spent time at an FBI task force. And about almost years ago now, I got promoted to sergeant. So my first role as a sergeant was on patrol. And then, you know, summerish last year, this opening came open and so I ended up putting in, putting in for it and I got assigned as the PIO. So very new to this communication world, don't really have any background in it, but it was a role that seemed interesting to me, something like something that would fit. So I ended up putting in for it and here we are. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, how have you enjoyed it so far? Shea Haney: It's good. It's a little different than being a sergeant on patrol, obviously, and running the road and running call to call, but different issues, but it's good. I'm learning every day. I have a good team behind me of folks. It's our Community Connections team. They handle our events and most of the social media stuff along with me. so I'm just learning every day and trying to improve. Sarah Loyd: you mentioned something that I think a lot of people in this space are wrestling with. Residents are coming directly to you for information now and you're breaking your own news. So what does that actually look like day to day? Shea Haney: Yeah, so I mean, we get incidents that happen obviously in the county and these other jurisdictions and, you know, we know about them, obviously before the news typically. ⁓ And so we put out the post, right? And so we're essentially being able to tell our story, tell what happened directly to our audience, right? And so ⁓ in years before social media law enforcement would send out a news release maybe or you know, have to go through the news to be able to tell their story. But now with social media and being active on it, we're able to showcase that, right, and tell our story. And then all of the other things kind of behind the scenes that the Sheriff's Office does that, you know, may not be newsworthy. We were able to tell that to our community through social media. Sarah Loyd: Yeah. And so how does the old fashioned news release fit into a world where your social post sometimes is the story? Shea Haney: Yeah, so I mean, we will send, I'll still send the news release to the media, right? But like with us at the Sheriff's Office, before I send it to them, I post it our social media, right? So, you know, it's still a thing, it still fits in, because it gives me a way to talk directly to the media. But most of the time, a lot of the times, they're pulling some of their stories directly from our social media posts anyway. And it's not the official news release, it's Hey, we have this, you know, just very recently I submitted, I posted about our drop in auto theft and I saw that it got picked up by a news station locally, right? Wasn't a news release, it was a post, we wanted to share it. We wanted to share the drop in an auto theft over the last five years, but they picked it up on their own, turned it into a news story. So I think the, you know, the more official stuff, the bigger things that we have, we'll still send in a news release, but any post that in today's world can turn into a news story. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, absolutely. So what's the internal flow for you guys when you're trying to get timely info out when something is happening? Shea Haney: It's mainly through me. So we don't have I'm the PIO. I'm the on call PIO. We don't have like a rotation. so when stuff's happening, ⁓ I have the number with me all the time. ⁓ the sergeants will call it or whoever has access that information will call it and then provide me with the timely information. I have access to all of our stuff outside of the sheriff's office and I make sure to relay information as needs to be posted. You know, and then outside of that. Typically the information will run through me through the of information. if something's going on in patrol, detectives, or the jail, they'll call me. I'll either craft up a social media post or my team will, or we'll figure out what the most appropriate way to get that information out is. I'm usually the filter for it all. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, and that's so helpful that you were a patrol officer yourself before because you ⁓ kind of have to be a little bit of an expert on everything when you're the PIO. Shea Haney: Right. Yeah, for sure. you know, we're, kind of a dying breed, I think in the law enforcement world of being a certified officer and the PIO. A lot of jurisdictions have, you know, news folks, communications folks as their PIO, typically. So but, ⁓ but you're right. I mean, I've spent some time in ⁓ most our divisions. ⁓ So have at least of that knowledge on the back end to to be able help filter through some of that stuff. And then coming from patrol, you know, I have those contacts down there, cause I was just a sergeant there not too long ago, right? So I can get information from those guys and in a timely manner. Sarah Loyd: So I have to ask about the Afro Man video. So tell me everything. Tell me what was happening, why you decided humor was the right call, and then what did it feel like when you guys hit a million views? Shea Haney: Yeah, so that was in March, right? And so he was going through his trial with the Adams County Sheriff's Office in Ohio. And we were getting on ⁓ lot of comments, a lot of messages in the first couple of days. And then one of my team members said, hey, why don't we put a video out, right? And another member said, hey, we had a video out ⁓ a year or so prior. Basically, guy had called in and left a voicemail that was pretty vulgar. So they edited that and we pushed that out. But what we ended up doing with this video is kind of collaborating as a team. We took some of the aspects of the previous video and went into a room. We had the Colorado flag there just, you know, kind of as a wink and a nod to our geography lesson that we were providing and used the music and stuff from the previous video. And I kind of ad libbed quick video, 30 seconds, I think is what it was, something like that. And he ended up sharing it himself, which was great. Obviously helped our views out there. And then some news stations locally and across the country did it. Because I think there's other sheriff's offices, Adams County, that were dealing with this. Yes, yes. And a few more had their own social media posts. But it was kind of the standard, just caption and send it out. Sarah Loyd: 12 more you pointed out. Shea Haney: We figured, you know, a little wink and a nod to the trolls and the folks that were hitting us up just to say, OK, because we were responding to each of the comments, but it just continued to happen. And we were getting phone calls and all of this stuff. And so, you know, I think a little levity to these situations helps, right? It helps show that we're just human like everyone else. And so it ended up working out pretty for us. But yeah, it was good win for the team, obviously getting over a million views. Doesn't happen that often, especially in law enforcement circles. So it was cool. It was definitely the right time, the right video, and the timing of it. I mean, I think that was the day that the verdict came in. And so was all over the news. I didn't expect it to hit like it did. I expected our following to like it. But yeah, like I said, it helped that he shared it. Afroman shared it himself. Sarah Loyd: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that definitely gives you a big boost. ⁓ So what does it feel like as a relatively new PIO when your first big swing lands like that? Shea Haney: Right. ⁓ it's good. You know, I mean, obviously not every video is going to be that right. And not every not everything is going to hit. we have to celebrate the small wins, right? Celebrate the fact that we were able to to make a video ⁓ hit well resonated with ⁓ our audience and know that that's not going to happen every time. You know, our job is to inform and educate the public. And we want to do that in an engaging way, but we're not going to strive for a million views, right? We're not going to strive to make that. You know, our is to inform and educate the public. And we want to do that in an engaging way, but we're not going to strive a million views, right? We're not going to strive to make that. viral video every time. viral video every time. If it does, if it hits, great. We'll celebrate it. You know, we'll always have that video out there. ⁓ But you know, that's not going to be our goal. Our goal is ⁓ to the information the best we can to our audience in whatever way that resonates with them. Sarah Loyd: Yeah. So I know you mentioned that, that you guys still struggle a little bit with reaching younger audiences. Um, what are, what are some things that you've tried that maybe haven't landed as, as well as, you know, say that Afro man video. Shea Haney: Yeah, I mean, just some of these other videos, right? I mean, just trying to grab the attention. ⁓ Sometimes, you know, a lot of good stories in law enforcement. ⁓ it's just your PSA, your public service announcement. You know, like we have a lot of fraud stuff going on. So what I've tried to do with fraud is maybe make some videos explaining it instead of just saying, hey, here's a scam. Here's where you can see it's a scam, right? Trying to educate the public, but... You know, it's hard to dress those things up to be super entertaining and engaging. But I have some younger folks on my team that just came over. They have new ideas as far as videos go. So trying to do that. ⁓ But the same time, we have to maintain, you know, how we message right at the sheriff's office. Like I said earlier, we're not going to we're not going to chase the views and the trends just to just to do that, because we're not influencers, we're communicators. We're communicating with the public. sharing that information. We'd like to make it as engaging and entertaining as possible, but there's entertainers and influencers for that if people are looking for that, right? We our best, but we're not gonna sacrifice that just the views. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, of course. I mean, you guys are trying to maintain this level of trust with the community. And you also said something before the show that really stuck with me. You said cops are humble people and you've also had to build that trust with your own team just to get content. So what does that look like in practice? Shea Haney: Yeah, so I mean, our deputies are doing good things every day, right? I mean, they're buying people, you know, hotel rooms out of their pockets, they're, you know, whatever, whatever it is. And so we get told about those things. And of course, we want to highlight that on social media, right? Because we want to celebrate what our cops are doing, but that's not why they're doing it. They're doing it to help those people and they don't want the recognition. They don't want to be out on social media. And so we don't, if they don't want their face out there, we'll still share the story, but we don't name them. And that's fine. Obviously, it hits a little bit better when we can start naming these guys and gals and giving them the recognition that they deserve. But again, that's not why they're doing it. So trying to build that trust that, hey, we'll come to you. We'll ask you about what you did. If you're OK with it, we'll share your information. If not, that's fine. We're still going to share the story. you can choose to be kind of named and maybe put in a spotlight a little bit or not and be more behind the scenes. And so just building up that trust with the different divisions, you know, we're, we're a decently sized agency of 700 ish total employees, right? And so we have a lot of different divisions, a lot of different units. Yeah, so just trying to build, build that trust for sure. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, was there anything you did early on ⁓ in your PIO tenure to show your deputies that you were safe to work with? Shea Haney: Yeah, I mean, just just respecting their their boundaries, right? And then just trying to say, hey, you give us the information and information you want pushed out, we're going to push it out in a timely manner. We're not going to sit on it. You know, if you have something, if detectives need something sent out, great, get it to us. We'll get it pushed out. sure we check with all of the folks involved to make sure everyone's good with information that we're sharing. Right. Because that's another thing is we have to be sensitive on what we share because There's ongoing investigations and there's privacy rules and all these other things that we have to worry about that, you know, maybe a normal kind of government communicator may not have to, you know, wrestle with. So just making sure that we don't violate that trust is a big deal to me. Sarah Loyd: Yeah. All right. So Shea, it is time for our lightning round. Just a quick answer here. What's your favorite spot in Adams County? Shea Haney: ⁓ patrol unincorporated Adams County and I would say like my favorite spot for the for eating is ⁓ Great Scots. It's been for long time. They move places. A lot of the patrol guys will go there for breakfast and for at night to get food. ⁓ They treat us pretty and the food's not too bad. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, that's awesome. And how about the most underrated thing about your community? Shea Haney: You know how much they care. You know, we were part of this, the big cities, right? As far as the county, but when we ask for donations and when we do Operation Free Bird, which is ⁓ a, that we host every November, where we give out food vouchers and stuff through our community, just seeing the outpouring of support for our events through the business community and just the normal community. I think it's kind of understated. you know, because I don't think people realize what goes into that is a lot of us going out and asking for some of these donations and from folks to help out. But when we do those, ⁓ especially because I'm new to this ⁓ and kind of planning those things, that's been something that I've noticed for sure. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, that's amazing. And if Adams County had a theme song, what would it be? Shea Haney: friends in low places. Yeah, so we are in unincorporated Adams County. We have the Grizzly Rose in our patrol area. Some folks may know it. It's a pretty well known country bar, you know that that folks go to. we're we're well aware of it. It's a great. It's a great place, but you know they play it all the time there, you know, and it's it's a good establishment that we have so. have concerts and folks that come in. I'm sure that Garth Brooks hasn't been there for a long time, that would probably be what it is. Plus we have a pretty big rural area in Adams County, So I'm sure they would appreciate the theme song as well. Sarah Loyd: you Yeah, Alright, so ⁓ one more question. ⁓ What's your advice for someone starting out in government communication? Shea Haney: absolutely. You know, to go slow, ⁓ it's not something you're going to learn ⁓ still, I'm only eight months in, so I have probably years ⁓ get to where I'm even comfortable ⁓ my role. But ⁓ starting off slow and then trying to build that trust. And then, you know, the classes that I've gone to have definitely shown me that you got to learn what your messaging is and what your agency ⁓ to do, and then make sure that you support that. You can come up with innovative ways to do it, supporting the messaging that your agency or your section of the government wants to push out is definitely important. Sarah Loyd: that's great. So ⁓ this has been such a great conversation. I really appreciate you being open about what it's like to be new in a role and still swing for the fences. And the that you and your team are doing to build trust both inside the Sheriff's office and out in the community is exactly the of story we want to tell on this show. So I really appreciate you being here. Shea Haney: Of course, yeah, thank you for having me. Sarah Loyd: Modern Gov Matters is presented by CivAll, powered by Social News Desk. If you found this episode helpful or interesting, please share it. And for more episodes, visit moderngovmatters.com. I'm Sarah Loyd and we'll see you in two weeks.