Those of us who daily lurk about the workings of social media and all its ever-changing twists and turns, we know all too well how quickly stories can grow not only legs to run a quick sprint but also wings to fly to distances far and wide.
What happens when that video some random citizen posted the night before begins to go viral? What if it’s your officer (or other employee) painted in a horrible light and beginning to get roasted in the comments? What if some semi-celebrity decides to re-post on his page? What started as a small fire in your backyard has now grown to cover the entire neighborhood.
And so the conflagration begins.
But what if you have your own footage, not edited and not covered by the oral rantings of the outraged citizen void of any objective perspective? What if you have video paid for by the citizens you serve, body-cam or in-car video, that gives the best view available? That footage is there for several good reasons.
Shouldn’t you release it?
Some public agencies have taken to releasing video quite early on in criminal cases (caution here!) and in those instances when public opinion is being swayed by other cell phone video without proper context already out there. Other agencies are not too willing to join the fray. Some delay and wait far too long to respond in any way, shape, or form to their own detriment. Once the fire reaches a certain temperature, it is far too difficult to put it out (let alone stem its growth—it burns with the heat of a raging inferno and can devour all in its path).
When a situation (however benign it may have started) begins to grow to the point of doing harm to the agency and to the public you serve, there are but a few questions you need to ask when it comes to releasing any information (to include video):
Will this release do harm to my agency or any ongoing investigation?
Will this release do harm to the public or will it help the public?
If it will help the public, yet harm the investigation, is the difference sufficient to warrant the release?
If your public is hurting (possibly even literally in the case of any sort of actual riot or physical altercations) would it be better to hold onto the facts out of care for processes? Or would it be better to help the public you serve to release that information, that video evidence, to the public and inform them of the truth in its raw form?
These are the questions that need to be asked. And if you’re the one tasked with relaying the information to the public from your agency, these are the questions you need to pose to your agency head when those little fires spring up. You know, the little ones with the potential to grow into large forest fires depending on the way the social media winds are blowing on any given day.
As always, tell your story. If not, someone else will.