Eric Winfield was beaten by police and was been very publically sharing his story through social media
A Google Alert brought me this Denver Westword blog story: “Eric Winfield, artist beaten by Denver cops, fights back with Facebook.”
A couple of things about this story concern me. First, the whole story, as told on http://denverpolice.wordpress.com/—which is not, as you might think, the agency’s official blog, but rather Eric Winfield’s—is in print. Assuming he is lying, putting the story in print makes it easier for him to “rehearse.”
Second, everything he says he did and said are not that—well—out of the ordinary for police officers to see and hear. How many times have suspects complained the cuffs were too tight? That they had a few drinks, but did nothing wrong?
And that’s what worries me perhaps most of all. Things that are routine to people in some professions are very traumatic to people who have never seen or experienced them before. Even something as simple as a traffic ticket, which an officer forgets issuing by shift’s end, can make a civilian second-guess herself for weeks.
And in the age of social media, she might just be inclined to go online and talk about it. And if it was a particularly nasty traffic stop, it might get more attention than just her small circle of friends.
Which is what has happened in Eric Winfield’s case. His fan page has 301 fans as of this writing. His blog carries the DPD name, nothing else—not even an About page. And he’s not the only one with a story like the one he tells.
To brand effectively, meet passion with passion
DPD is no stranger to social media; the agency’s Twitter account is one of the better ones, as agency Twitter accounts go (that is, while they don’t follow anyone, they’re responsive, and they have a good variety of content).
But their Facebook page was abandoned after May 2009, the newsletters on their website date back only to June 2009, and the sporadic press releases on their media relations page can hardly be called a blog, even if it has an RSS feed.
The problem here isn’t Eric Winfield’s story itself. He’s saying things we’ve all heard before about police in every city and town. The problem, rather, is his passion in telling it—because the Denver Police Department lacks passion in telling its own story.
True, its Twitter account and its press releases are good at highlighting jobs well done. But there’s nothing behind those things. No public faces who put names and personalities to official information, no one to show—rather than tell—the stories about the good this agency is doing.
Eric Winfield quotes Hunter S. Thompson in telling us, “The D.P.D. has never been anything but a dangerous gang of vengeful, half-bright cowboys with a vicious reputation for brutality and what the Hell’s Angels used to call ‘massive retaliation.” With little evidence to the contrary, and a fair number of stories that cite their tellers’ own experiences with brutality, DPD: this is your brand.
The hard work of branding
It’s easier, of course, to fall back to the position of “someone is always complaining about the cops.” Whether or not the DPD has internal problems, however, is moot. If it wants to be known as a professional law enforcement agency, it is going to have to change its entire dynamic: communication, public relations, and yes, even problem officers, if they exist as civilians believe.
This kind of change is, without a doubt, hard work. Often it cannot be undertaken without a drastic leadership change, as the LAPD made when it hired Bill Bratton. When it comes to social media use as part of an overall public relations strategy, leadership cannot only lead from the top down. It must also be willing to take good ideas from the bottom up.
Because the bottom is where the interactions with Eric Winfield, his 301 fans, and everyone else who has heard his story are taking place. No, a DPD Facebook fan page or a detectives’ blog can’t change their opinions overnight. But it can support the organizational changes. It can more effectively communicate those changes to a wider audience, and it can help mitigate the effects of negative publicity. It can educate and inform.
In a comfortable place, it can bring together both people who are jaded by their daily experiences, with people who don’t understand why police didn’t loosen the cuffs. It can promote understanding.
Who is telling your story? How can you tell yours? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.
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How are you coming to this assumption of lies on the part of Eric Winfield? Looks pretty beat up when facing 3 police officers. Should persons taken into custody look like this? Should it take 3 police officers and 700+ lbs to take a 160lb man in? What about a woman?
Think first, miss. It could be you next time and all of us can do the assuming.
“Assuming” doesn’t mean I think Mr. Winfield is lying. It’s a devil’s advocate position, which I took long enough to be able to see from the point of view of the law enforcement officers and administrators who read this blog.
We actually don’t know for certain what words were said, whether he resembled a suspect no one knows about (since the DPD isn’t talking), really what exactly happened. Memories dont’ work during traumatic events the same way they do under normal circumstances — a fact that has been proven through scientific research.
Actually, no, I don’t think Eric Winfield nor his friends are lying. They saw and felt what they saw and felt, and they also have the context of all the other incidents which I linked to in this post. The DPD, as I said, needs to change things. And other law enforcement agencies need to learn its lessons.
Also, to clarify, I don’t think all of this blog’s LE readers believe Mr. Winfield is lying either. Some might. Some might not. Many many claims of police brutality are made whether founded or not, and it’s hard, as I pointed out, not to become jaded by them.
I think use of force is one of the hardest things for police to help civilians understand, because making the decision to use it is so subjective, dependent on so many different variables. I see the goal of understanding really as three-pronged: the right (frequent) training, the right recruitment/retention decisions, and the right communication with the public — at all times.
Aloha!
What I gather from this article and my own experiences, everyone has a story to tell and most times it’s from their perspective. Even if you were a witness at the incident, you’d never know what’s going on in the actors’ head. I’d like to hear both sides and what impartial witnesses have to say.
If I were one of the participants, I’d like to tell my side side of the story, rather than have someone else tell it. However, there are those of us that are articulate enough to do so, so we rely on others. That’s where I think some of the problems occur – the information gets lost in the translation, so to speak.
I believe everyone should have the opportunity to say their side of the story and at the same time try to see it from the other person’s perspective. The problem is not too many us take the time to that anymore and jest rush to conclusions.
Amen, Chris. I completely agree and feel the same way. My main point was that we don’t have all points of view… just the media telling the victims’ stories, and this one victim telling his own.
I understand PDs cannot comment on ongoing investigations… I just think more could be done apart from the Twitter page, which is a great start — just not… quite… enough given the seriousness of these allegations.
“People need to realize it can happen to them,” Winfield said in an interview. “These police officers are just horrible at their jobs. If they would have done two and a half minutes of police work, nothing would have happened, and I would have just gone home that night, and I would have two and a half years of my life back.”
Denver may pay $40,000 in police-brutality suit
Nothing will happen to these cops, and most of them signed up for this power.