I had the pleasure of being invited to guest speak at IACP’s PIO Mid-Year Conference in beautiful Louisville, KY. Louisville has tons to offer besides the Louisville Slugger factory and Churchill Downs. For example, Fourth Street Live is a vibrant downtown area with shopping, wining, dining and outdoor concerts. Just a stone's throw away, the IACP conference was located at the Seelbach, known as the setting of Tom and Daisy Buchanan's wedding in "The Great Gatsby."
At the IACP event itself, a collection of dedicated Public Information Officers (PIOs) from around the Kentucky area and beyond met to trade stories, present cases, mingle, learn, and develop relationships with their fellow colleagues.
I always enjoy spending time with PIOs; they are always professional, always friendly, and always striving to become better at their profession. Serving as the mouthpiece of large and important government organizations, PIOs certainly have their work cut out each and every day. I’m happy to see such great interest in improving, and in many cases, sharing skills with fellow PIOs at these events.
One of the things that I was able to take away from the IACP event was that law enforcement organizations are always looking for ways of improving ways in which they do things. Whether it is mastering techniques for responding to a particular type of event or emergency, responding more effectively and efficiently to the masses, or receiving and disseminating information more efficiently (where SnapStream can help with TV collection and distribution).
There are even federal grants that law enforcement organizations are able to draw on to improve the way their organizations respond to emergency situations. Specifically, if a law enforcement organization is interested in using technology (see: COPS Technology Program, Byrne JAG).