It would appear that every police officer is a community relations person. Why, then, is it necessary to have specific personnel assigned to this task?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The obvious answer is that community relation officers should have special training and the time, released from reactive 911 service calls, to interact with the community in a positive manner. Arrests and crime investigations are different from community relations. Patrol vehicles insulate police officers from the community and are really different from walking a beat or a bicycle beat. A distinction must be made between community relations and public relations. Public relations are specially trained officers and civilians with degrees in media who handle blogs, television, paper media, and radio. Of course all officers need training in community relations and need to interact with the community in a positive manner, but it is obviously not enough for the 21st century police department.