Television Images of Policing

From the very beginning, the oxygen that has given life to the Rodney King story is television. (Alter 1992, 43)

Nearly fifteen years have passed since the now-infamous ”Holliday videotape” was aired across the country, but the images captured on that sixty-eight second video clip still resonate in the public’s mind. California highway troopers attempted to stop Rodney King’s vehicle for excessive speed, and when he failed to stop, the troopers requested assistance. By the time King stopped his vehicle, at least twenty-three officers had responded. The situation escalated quickly as the officers struggled to subdue him. George Holliday began videotaping when the situation had peaked: Despite being hit twice with Taser darts, King continued to resist. The videotape then captures several of the officers beating King with their batons, pausing, and then beating him again. Estimates of the number of times King was hit and kicked vary, ranging from twenty-three to fifty-six (see Schlief 2005), but the impact of the video was significant: It took an incident that would have been ignored and made it a celebrated news event. Several police officers were charged in state and then federal court, the Los Angeles Police Department was forced to investigate and reconsider its use-of-force policy, many other police departments across the country were forced to investigate police brutality accusations, and the city of Los Angeles and its citizens had to recover from two days of rioting following the acquittal of the officers of state charges.

This incident illustrates the challenges of policing in a television age. The public relies heavily on television for news and entertainment. Most national studies indicate that almost all households have at least one television set, and, on average, it is on for eight hours a day (Macionis 1997). Half of all Americans state that television is their primary source of news (Roper Center 1999). Since most people have only sporadic direct interactions with the police, what the public thinks about police officers is influenced by news and entertainment images. Television is a powerful vehicle through which a police department can communicate its goals, justify how it responds to crime, and request public involvement or assistance in solving open cases.

Although there are opportunities for police departments to capitalize on the power of television, there are great risks. Accusations of police misconduct, case investigation errors, and high-profile cases put incredible pressure on police departments to be prepared to respond via the media when such situations arise. This article first discusses the strategies police departments use to influence how they are presented in the news and then describes the images presented about policing on television.

The Relationship between Television and Police Organizations

Research indicates that crime is an important news topic and that media organizations tend to emphasize the beginning stages of the criminal justice system (Chermak 1995; Surette 1998). Crime incidents, police investigations, and arrests account for approximately half of all crime stories presented. Television news organizations will present, on average, between three and five crime stories in a newscast but also must be prepared for breaking disasters and celebrated crime events. News organizations have developed various strategies in order to produce crime stories efficiently. Perhaps the most significant strategy is a reliance on police departments for reports and information about crime incidents.

Police are available and can comment about an event immediately after it is discovered. These sources are publicly accepted as credible voices on crime, underscoring the media’s authority and protecting their image as an objective conveyor of the important events of the day (Chibnall 1977; Ericson, Baranek, and Chan 1989). Existing research compares the frequency that police are cited as news sources to the citation of other criminal justice officials, government sources, victims, and defendants. For example, Sherizen (1978, 220) reported that police sources accounted for more than 34% of the sources cited, and another study reported the police as the primary source of story information when compared to other criminal justice sources (Ericson, Baranek, and Chan 1991). A third study indicated that police are the dominant sources in all types of crime stories (incidents, policy stories, program stories, and statistical stories) and that when law enforcement sources are cited, individuals from the top levels of the police hierarchy provide more than one-fourth of the information (Chermak 1995).

Police departments invest considerable time and effort in order to be prepared to respond to reporters. Police departments usually provide space to reporters within headquarters so that reporters can easily access records, reports, and official sources. Most large-sized police departments have full-time, trained public information spokespersons to respond directly to questions from reporters (Chermak and Weiss 2003). Public information officers (PIOs) attempt to maximize the positive and minimize the negative images depicted about police organizations in the news. There have been a few studies examining the responsibilities of PIOs, providing general background on their role in the construction of a police department’s image (Chermak and Weiss 2003; Lovall 2001; Skolnick and McCoy 1985; Surette and Richard 1995). Skolnick and McCoy (1985) illustrate how PIOs package information in a way that increases the likelihood that the media will cover the department in a positive way. Another study, by Surette and Richard (1995, 329), described the public information officers as ”daily troubleshooters and first contact points” between the police and the media.

Police departments certainly respect the power of the media and have made significant organizational changes to take advantage of this resource to communicate their preferred meanings of events. Based on the scholarly understanding of the nature of the police-media relationship, one would expect that police departments are presented favorably on television. The next section addresses this question.

The public is bombarded with images of crime and policing in news and entertainment programs on television. The long-running popularity of police dramas, such as Dragnet, Hill Street Blues, Law and Order, NYPD Blue, and the CSI shows, demonstrates the public’s consistent fascination with police work. Research examining the representation of police on television dramas stresses that the police are depicted stereotypically (Maguire, San-dage, and Weatherby 1999): Police officers are shown as being effective (most cases are solved in the allotted time frame), intelligent, honest, and dedicated (Maguire 1988).

The presentation of policing in television dramas coexists with the constant bombardment of policing images in crime news stories. Most crime stories focus on specific crime incidents, with an emphasis on the circumstances of the crime and the characteristics of the victim and the defendant. Police departments are critical to the creation of these stories because they provide the incident and arrest reports to construct these stories. Although crime fighting is only a small part of the work police officers do, this part of their job is emphasized in the news. Police are thus presented as first responders to crime activity, conducting investigations to increase public safety.

Moreover, the police are able to use media interest in their activities to their advantage by attempting to accomplish investigation goals. For example, police departments request help from citizens to solve unsolved cases. In many jurisdictions, police departments have partnered directly with the media to fulfill crime fighting objectives in ”Crimestoppers” programming. These media segments are collaborative efforts involving the public, the police, and the media (Rosenbaum, Lurigio, and Lavrakas 1987; Skolnick and McCoy 1985). Police departments have formalized the media’s role in fighting crime by having them reenact unsolved crimes to generate additional leads and information. An evaluation of these programs indicates that (1) they were highly visible and well received by media executives, (2) they were successful (these segments resulted in 92,000 felony arrests, 20,000 convictions, and the recovery of stolen property valued at more than $500 million), and (3) they increased citizen awareness of anticrime efforts (Rosenbaum, Lurigio, and Lavra-kas 1987, 54).

Maguire, Sandage, and Weatherby (1999) conclude that most television stories present the police in a positive way and that police are typically presented as crime fighters, although coverage varies by size of the media market examined. Television news stations are rarely critical of police departments and tend to emphasize accomplishments and ignore mistakes. Policing innovations, such as the implementation of a new program or a new strategy, are also frequently presented on television.

Conclusion

Although the general presentation of policing on television is positive, there are exceptions to this general pattern. Indeed, police departments are constantly under the microscope because of high-profile incidents such as the one discussed at the beginning of the article. When crimes go unsolved, when crime rates soar, and when officers are involved in a corruption scandal or deadly force incident, news media will relentlessly present the details, and police departments will be forced to respond to the crisis by making personnel changes, adopting new policies, and changing tactics. The rare event tends to be sensationalized in the news. The end result is that the media presents and the public consumes conflicting images of policing on television.

See also: Accountability; Attitudes toward the Police: Overview; Community Attitudes toward the Police; Community Watch Pro­grams; Crimestoppers; Media Images of Policing; Media Relations

References:

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