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Our reputation depends on how we communicate and how often we create media to accent our positives. What I learned through my six years in law enforcement and decades of law enforcement support was that mistakes by officers are incredibly easy to make. The best officers can inadvertently do the wrong thing. Most cops I worked with were good, decent people doing a job that protects all.
Yet it’s been my experience that it’s almost impossible to do the right thing with every interaction. To gain goodwill, we need the support of the political middle. We need to expand our influence beyond traditional supporters. We do this by building credibility. Credibility comes from telling both sides of any story. Credibility comes from good storytelling.
We collectively do good things daily to make people safer, so shouldn’t we be telling that story on every possible platform? Isn’t this more important than addressing emotional grievances—issues that are the heart of any social media platform? Isn’t the effort to objectively tell both sides of any story (to build credibility) more effective in creating a larger audience?
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Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention and Statistics for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of Criminology and Public Affairs—University of Maryland, University College. Former police officer. Retired federal senior spokesperson.
Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff—Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Produced successful state anti-crime media campaigns.
Thirty-five years of directing award-winning (50+) public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed thousands of times by every national news outlet, often with a focus on crime statistics and research. Created the first state and federal podcasting series. Produced a unique and emulated style of government proactive public relations.
Certificate of Advanced Study—The Johns Hopkins University.
Author of Success With The Media: Everything You Need To Survive Reporters and Your Organization, available at Amazon and additional bookstores.
Crime in America.Net—“Trusted Crime Data, Made Clear.”
Quoted by The Associated Press, USA Today, A&E Television, the nationally syndicated Armstrong Williams Television Show (30 times), Department of Justice documents, multiple U.S. Supreme Court briefs, C-SPAN, the National Institute of Health, college and university online libraries, multiple books and journal articles, The Baltimore Sun, The Capital Gazette, MSN, AOL, Yahoo, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, JAMA, News Break, the National Institute of Corrections, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Gartner Consulting, the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center, Law.com, The Marshall Project, The Heritage Foundation via Congressional testimony, Law Enforcement Today, Law Officer.com, Blue Magazine, Citizens Behind The Badge, Police1, American Peace Officer, Corrections.com, Prison Legal News, The Hill, The Journal of Offender Monitoring, Inside Edition Television, Yomiuri Shimbun (Asia’s largest newspaper), Le Figaro (France’s oldest newspaper), Oxygen and allied publications, Forbes, Newsweek, The Economist, The Toronto Sun, the Homeland Security Digital Library, The ABA Journal, The Daily Express (UK), The Harvard Political Review, The Millennial Source, The Federalist Society, Lifewire, The Beccaria Portal on Crime (Europe), The European Journal of Criminology, American Focus, and many additional publications.
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A comprehensive overview of crime for recent years is available at Violent and Property Crime Rates In The U.S.
Opinion
I read articles on the state of the American news industry daily. If you think that the justice system has problems, they pale in comparison to what’s happening within the media, with the loss of 30,000 jobs and extremely low public opinion ratings of journalists.
I came across an article where a philanthropist stopped giving money to left-leaning news publications. He asked, “Do the organizations have real plans to grow their audiences outside of their most faithful followers?” If his funding wasn’t reaching more than the already converted, there was little point in continuing his efforts.
I believe that his question applies to those of us within law enforcement and the overall justice system regarding our outreach efforts; do we try to reach independents and those outside our usual supporters?
I read a variety of police and justice system social media daily, and while we do a good job with those who agree with us, do we do a credible job of bringing in people beyond our usual supporters?
35 Years Of Talking To The Public
I have 35 years of leading media and public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies, including working on the “McGruff—Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. I won a slew of awards for my proactive work using self-created social media, podcasts, radio, and television shows to promote the work of law enforcement and justice agencies. We traveled the country teaching others new and unique ways of reaching the public.
Every day, police officers are saving lives at accident scenes, finding lost children, or apprehending dangerous people. Do we go out of our way to publicize these events to the media and the larger public? Do we create our own media, making sure that the public is aware of all the good things we do?
I witnessed officers literally saving the lives of multiple victims at accident scenes using skills that were remarkable. Did they get publicity for this? No. Should they have? Yes.
We save lives daily. We protect the lives of the vulnerable. Corrections, parole, and probation also have stories to tell that resonate favorably with the public.
People are interested in what we do and how we do it. It’s an opportunity if handled correctly.
How We Communicate
Law enforcement and justice social media publications understandably offer emotional accounts of the wrongs committed against officers and other emotional issues that resonate with cops, correctional officers, and supporters.
Maybe we need to expand our emphasis to address topics beyond what resonates with us. True crime is exploding. Dozens of television shows emphasize the interesting or dramatic aspects of the work we do.
There is obviously interest in what we do and how we do it. A great example of this philosophy is Heroes Behind The Badge, which I advertise on the front page of CrimeInAmerica.Net when you click on an article. If you would like me to promote your site, please contact me with your RSS feed.
Social media strategists want creators to connect with readers on an emotional level, and I understand that. But we need to reach others beyond ourselves if we want more influence. Spending most of our time servicing the converted means we do not move forward.
I’m not suggesting that we leave our supporters behind. I’m suggesting that we expand our audience.
We need to reach the political middle, and we have the tools to do that through aggressive use of social media, photos, podcasts, and self-created television and radio shows.
Interestingly, sheriffs throughout the country are aggressively doing this with powerful and effective media that gets tens—sometimes hundreds—of thousands of views. As elected officials, their audience is everyone.
My bottom line: we have to go beyond reaching the converted and include the middle of America. We do this by building credibility. Credibility comes from telling both sides of any story. Credibility comes from good storytelling.
The Independents
A publisher of a police social media site said most of his readers were conservative, so they fully intended to serve their needs. While I understand that philosophy, are we neglecting to influence others?
Many Americans describe themselves as independents, not Democrats or Republicans. There are more independents than Republicans or Democrats. A January 2026 Gallup poll reported by AP News indicated about 45% of U.S. adults identified as independents in 2025.
We need to reach them.
Per Pew Research Center, Americans have long been frustrated with the two major political parties. Thirty-seven percent say they wish there were more parties to choose from.
My point? The middle wants more. Let’s give it to them regarding policing and the justice system.
Conclusions
Our reputation and effectiveness depend on how we communicate and how often we create media to accent our positives. It’s almost impossible to do the right thing every time across tens of millions of public interactions yearly, which is why we need to promote our people whenever possible.
If we collectively do good things daily to make people safer, shouldn’t we be telling that story on every possible platform?
The middle is influenced not by promotion alone, but by fair and balanced appraisal. Do we need to be smarter in our social media and public communications? Yes. Do we need to reach the political middle? Yes.
I’m not suggesting we leave our usual supporters behind. I’m suggesting that we move forward with an expanded audience.
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