RNC Const. Geoff Higdon
Royal Newfoundland Constabulary’s media relations
do make mistakes just like humans. But we are a very professional group of people, and I think that the more people can see that, the more people will trust us, and the more people that trust us, the better we can do our job.”
Higdon took a break from running up and down stairs to answer 20 Questions for The Telegram recently. position was the opportunity to highlight the good in his police force.
“I think that a lot of police officers get a bad rap. I think policing in general sometimes has some negative perceptions from the public and I think that if you can properly do this type of job and combine social media, regular media and provide a transparent presence to the public ... I think that it brings to light the fact that police officers are humans; we
“The other side is that we can use that social media to get our messages out when we have to. So we build an audience through these positive or relaxed messages, and then when we actually need to be into a serious mode we already have those people following us.”
It seems to be working. The RNC’s Facebook page has more than 26,000 likes, and its Twitter page has more than 33,000 followers.
What drew Higdon to the
Six months since he took on the role of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary’s media relations officer full time, Const. Geoff Higdon’s enthusiasm for the job remains sky high.
It’s a demanding role that involves constant questions from curious journalists and requires a lot of running around (literally). He needs to keep abreast of everything from murder investigations to moose calls, and he says it’s like having a frontrow seat to every department within the police force.
“I always joke that I keep meaning to buy a Fitbit. ’Cause I think if I had a Fitbit, I’d knock everyone’s steps per day out of the water, because the amount of times I go up and down over those stairs to go try and find information for a reporter or for myself — I’m going to have quads of steel from those stairs,” he said.
Higdon starts his mornings by catching up on overnight police reports, and spends his day acting as the voice of the RNC. Along with communicating with traditional media outlets, he’s been driving the police force’s presence on social media.
He said with all the white noise online, especially on Twitter, the trick is to make your message stand out.
He said it’s important to build an audience when things are good.
“You’ll notice we do a lot of different things like the tweet-alongs, or we make a little joke here and there, post a silly picture of a moose or a police officer doing something silly. We just try to have a little bit of fun with it, because it’s twofold: people will see that we’re human, and they’ll relate to us because we are human. We live next to everyone else. We also drive on the roads we have the same issues that everyone else has,” he said.