Being prepared to manage a major case — such as the recent high school shootings in Oregon, the Oklahoma City bombing or the explosion of TWA Flight 800 — is something for which every law enforcement officer trains. Police officers also are taught to manage many lesser incidents, such as a routine traffic stop that turns into a deadly confrontation.
But are they prepared for working with the people who report these stories to the general public?
“There’s a lot of fear in dealing with the media on the part of law enforcement,” says Sgt. Patricia A. McConnell, a 20-year veteran of the Winnetka Police Department. “First and foremost, we don’t want to say anything that will jeopardize an investigation. Another huge concern is, `Am I going to look stupid? Do I have asparagus on my teeth? Will Uncle Joe or my kid’s teacher see me and think I look like an idiot?’ That would be anyone’s concern, (but) it’s also that we’re representing a larger organization.”
Pretty ironic, isn’t it? Cops who face threats to life and limb on a daily basis, who require a greater share of courage than the average Joe in order to do their jobs often are afraid of something as seemingly benign as a reporter with a notepad or a microphone. That fear — and the lack of communication that sometimes results — is something former WGN-Channel 9 anchor Rick Rosenthal hopes to erase.
“Every police officer,” he says with conviction, “is required to take firearms training and regularly recertify with a weapon that most of them will never remove from their holster in a moment of danger, much less actually fire on the street,” he says. “It is far more likely that police officers will have regular contacts with the media, who can sometimes pose a significant threat of their own. And yet, only a few police officers have ever had any meaningful media relations training that would enable them to effectively work with reporters.”
In some cases, the fear mentioned by McConnell goes hand in hand with hostility. In the old school of law enforcement, reporters are the enemy. The code goes something like this: “Don’t tell them anything. We know; media, you guess.”
Over the last three years, Rosenthal has worked to change that attitude through programs aimed at reversing cops’ perceptions. In many cases, he appears to be succeeding. “Due to this course, my viewpoint of the media has changed,” read one evaluation of his program. “I realize they’re not the enemy.”
Rosenthal also trains corporate executives, but his principal focus is providing media training for department commanders, supervisors and public information officers at law enforcement agencies — those most likely to be called upon by reporters. The courses are presented by his Winnetka-based RAR Communications Inc.
Standing 6 feet 4 inches tall and with a broadcaster’s panache, the 52-year-old Rosenthal is a commanding presence. More than one graduate of the course has been heard to say, “He could be reading the phone book and his voice alone keeps you interested.” And indeed, a fly on the wall finds that his program is far from a boring “chalk talk” lecture.
Class begins with a clip from the film “The Untouchables” in which Elliott Ness, played by Kevin Costner, allows an ambitious young photojournalist to take pictures as Ness takes an ax to a crate of what he thinks is bootleg whiskey. Imagining the glory he’s about to enjoy with help from the press, Ness reaches into the crate and pulls out . . . a fancy umbrella. The coverage he subsequently receives in the newspaper is quite different from what he expected.
Rosenthal uses this clip, among others ranging from real-life coverage of police situations to an old episode of “The Bob Newhart Show,” to illustrate the power of members of the press who report on crime, as well as the potential for unexpected outcomes.
“My overriding philosophy is: Feed the animals,” he says. `Law enforcement should be as open and accessible to, and forthcoming with, the media as possible. By understanding the media and working with reporters to meet their needs, law enforcement can most effectively communicate its many powerful and positive messages to the public. This works even in bad-news situations.”
Despite his plea for mutual respect, it’s still a big hit when Rosenthal makes media types the butt of jokes to defuse anxieties on the part of his students. This strategy includes giving examples of ridiculous questions from reporters in actual interviews of cops, such as, “How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?”
Later Rosenthal holds a mock press conference in which an officer fields questions from Rosenthal, playing a hostile reporter, and from others in the class. Rick warns his students not to be too rough on classmates: “Don’t insult the alligator until after you’ve crossed the river!”
Rosenthal, with his 30 years of experience in the Chicago news scene, has plenty of experience with press conferences. He was morning drive news anchor on WMAQ and WGN radio before joining Channel 9, and he garnered numerous local and national awards in broadcasting.
After spending so many years trying to “get the story” from law enforcement officials, Rosenthal saw a need and decided to fill it. Asking routine questions — and the reluctant responses he got — convinced him that whatever training officers were getting in media relations left something to be desired. He held his first session in January 1995.
“Historically, the conventional wisdom in law enforcement has been to ignore the media and hope they’ll go away,” he says. “They won’t. And in fact,” he adds, “law enforcement can win with the media by working with reporters, so reporters don’t work on them. I teach police how they can do that.”
A number of RAR clients admit that although most cops get some media relations exposure during their advanced training, it has always been presented by another cop — until now. “The perspective Rick brings is as a media professional,” says Kevin Morison, former director of news affairs for the Chicago Police Department. “Not someone who’s studied the media from afar, with knowledge based on theory — he was the media for decades. He brings that real-world experience that a career law enforcement professional could not have.”
“As someone who’s been there and understands the perspective of the reporter, Rick brings to law enforcement a much-needed dimension that he can uniquely provide,” says Palatine Police Chief Jerry Bratcher, who has consulted Rosenthal about the 1993 Brown’s Chicken mass murder case and other matters. “(Rick will) stay as busy as he wants to — there’s a real need for this type of training around the country.”
Though Rosenthal’s programs started out in the Chicago metro area, word soon spread throughout Illinois and then nationally through the Southern Police Institute at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and the Northwestern University Traffic Institute in Evanston. Now he’s taught all over the country, including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Ft. Lauderdale, New Orleans, St. Louis and Seattle. His client list includes the U.S. Marshals Service and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
“These days, crime reporting is cheap and dominates the news — everyone knows that,” says Morison, now head of corporate communications for the police in Washington, D.C. “Rick has carved out a niche in helping train media relations specialists like myself, as well as supervisors and officers on the street. What’s important is that he’s providing not just the skills, but presents a message of hope that in working with the media, law enforcement can win. A lot of law enforcement professionals are afraid of the media. Rick presents a compelling case for why that doesn’t have to be so.”
Sgt. McConnell, who met Rosenthal when he was covering the 1988 Laurie Dann shootings for WGN television, agrees.
“Some of the good information I got from Rick’s training is about getting together proactively,” she says. “We need the media when we’re looking for someone, for crime prevention, to communicate with the public. If we don’t work together, the fear and ignorance will continue.”
