NCJ Number
88991
Date Published
1983
Length
33 pages
Annotation
The public-relations expert and the social science researcher can support routine and crisis security communications needs and provide qualitative and quantitative measurements of the human aspects of security problems and solutions.
Abstract
A point of diminishing returns can be reached where the mere addition of security personnel and dollars does not significantly improve an organization's ability to absorb, eliminate, or transfer risks. At such a point, security gains will derive from improved motivation, greater credibility, and greater consensus on security goals and objectives. The public-relations counselor can help in building credibility for security with top management, in motivating security personnel to handle tedious security tasks, and in convincing employees at all levels that attention to security procedures serves their own goals within the company. Overall, the alliance between security and public relations is helpful when security departments need assistance in organizing and implementing activities that promote productive relations with special publics, such as managers, employees, security guards, and the general public. Opinion or attitudinal research done by social scientists can enable security to become more of a science. Social science research techniques, for example, may be applicable to describing and experimenting with deterrents. At the very least it can provide information on what various groups within an organization know, understand, believe, and care about security efforts. This article suggests publicity projects and discusses a code of ethics for security personnel and emergency public-relations planning. Twenty-two footnotes are provided.