Consistent, authentic, transparent communication key to building genuine trust with community for MSU Police and Public Safety

<p>We're joined by Inspector Chris Rozman, who's public information officer and Dana Whyte, who's a new communications manager at <a href="https://police.msu.edu">MSU Police and Public Safety</a>. </p><p>“We have officially launched our community engagement unit,” says Lynch. “What that means is we have officers who are now assigned full time to community engagement. So, when they work, they are spending times with our students in residence halls, with our students at the Union, with fraternities and sororities at their events, and with registered student organizations and others. Their areas of responsibility are primarily based in residential and education housing services and the residence hall neighborhoods.</p><p>“There is a sergeant assigned to each neighborhood. We also have a sergeant in the Union and a lieutenant with overall responsibility for the unit. They are actively engaged meeting and working with students and integrating themselves within the housing professional staff and our student life staff. And so coming up on a first full month, we've already seen some very positive results. For our students who live in residence halls, if you're out and about and you want to get to know your community engagement officer or sergeant, they should be easy to find because they're there just about every day.</p><p>“Communication in general is extremely important. It’s the ability to communicate effectively and establish that two-way communication to tell our story. How do we prepare our community to understand what and why and how we operate? Most importantly, the communication should be frequent. And knowing who within the department has that responsibility is a key component. Establishing a public information officer allows us to operate at a higher level. And then by having a communications manager allows us to effectively communicate, not only just through a public information officer perspective, but from a written communication and overall strategic communications plan and through social media.