Public Relations and the Police
| Author | G. D. Gregory |
| Date | 01 October 1970 |
| Published date | 01 October 1970 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7004301005 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
G.
D.
GREGORY,
O.B.E.,
D.S.C.
Public Relations Officer,
Metropolitan Police.
PUBLIU
RELATIONS
AND
THE
POLIUE
Public relations has been a recognised profession for many years
but, whilst much has been written about it, there remains a confusion
about what is meant by the term. This may need to be resolved before
entering into a discussion on this subject. One way of defining the
function of public relations in progressive administration would be to
say that it is concerned with the study of the human factor in modern
society and its attendant organisations. With the individual, public
relations begins as an attitude of mind, a way of regarding and
approaching people (as a police recruit is trained to do) but when
this work needs to be done on behalf of a large organisation, such as
a police force, the problem becomes so large and complex that, as a
rule, it is best done by specialists who have the training and ex-
perience to reach and influence the public in the mass.
The size of the task depends on the size
of
the organisation but
depends more on the power and importance invested in it. The more
influential the group, the more important
it
is that its public re-
lations should be well managed and the more difficult it is to manage
them well, particularly when, as in our case, police forces are beset
by new and trying social problems and the mass communication
media are bringing them under increasing and more searching public
scrutiny.
With this in mind, the Public Relations Department at New Scot-
land Yard was set up in August, 1967, after the Commissioner had
called for an entirely independent survey to establish what formal
machinery might best suit the Metropolitan Police in improving the
relationship between his force and the metropolitan public. Earlier,
the Royal Commission of 1962 had been exercised by the need for
improved public relations in the Police Service but neither its
report nor that of a Home
Office
Working Party enquiring into the
relationship between the press and New Scotland Yard had yiel-
ded much, if any, real practical advice
on
how the problem was to be
tackled.
The most immediate task was found to be the need to improve the
relationship between the press and New Scotland Yard for, without
an improvement in this area, it was thought inconceivable that the
eight-million strong metropolitan public could
be
reached and
influenced.
For
many years this police-press relationship had been
poor-poor
in the sense that both sides were frustrated in the task of
issuing or receiving news of police matters. The Press Bureau as then
October 1970 273
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