There is no doubt that liaising with the press can be a vital part of a criminal investigation and it’s pleasing that, on the whole here in Telford & Wrekin, West Mercia Police enjoys a good relationship with the local media, writes Telford Police’s Divisional PR manager Chris Ammonds.

When working for the police you have to accept that stories about criminality are going to be of interest to the public and therefore journalists do spend quite a lot of time chasing this type of story.

In my role as PR Manager for West Mercia Police here in Telford, it is my job to deal with the media enquiries that come in and, where possible, provide answers to the questions that are posed. This isn’t always straightforward but we do try to provide as much information as possible in response to press enquiries, although on occasions we are limited as to what we can say because cases are ‘live’ and investigations ongoing.

Sometimes when a journalist calls it is a simple matter of giving them as much information as possible about an incident and explaining the outcome , but obviously there are occasions when the tip off they’ve had is a good one and related to something more significant. If that is the case, again we will try to give the journalist as much information as we can without putting anything at risk within the investigation.

It’s fair to say that not only do the press need us to help them fill their pages or air-time, but we need the press to help us get warning or reassurance messages to local people, or to make specific appeals through press releases relating to incidents that have taken place.

Nowadays there are other things we use to get appeals into the public domain – the force website (www.westmercia.police.uk/), the West Mercia Police Facebook or Twitter page, or the Telford & Wrekin Community Messaging System (www.twpcm.org/rmwebportal/) for example – but traditionally the press have always been one of the first stops when it comes to appealing to the public.

So how do we go about appealing for help? Basically, when a crime is committed and we receive a complaint, the OIC (Officer in Charge) of the case will look into it and start the investigation. If he or she feels that more information or witnesses are required then that is when they will come to me and ask if I’ll put out an appeal through the press.

For crimes such as burglary or thefts this is a fairly straightforward process but if an offence is more serious (such as a violent or sexual assault for example) then we have to plan what we release more carefully. In cases like this I will work not only with the OIC but also the SIO (Senior Investigating officer) to consider whether a more detailed media plan is required in terms of what information to release at which particular time and what follow up appeals we can do if we hold on to certain information until a couple of days have passed.

In larger investigations I will often make the SIO available for interview so that he or she can make personal appeals to the public through the press and, as they are usually more experienced officers, the SIOs we have at West Mercia are usually pretty comfortable in front of a camera or microphone.

One thing that we always try to balance when putting out press releases though is the need to remind people that Telford & Wrekin, and West Mercia as whole, is undoubtedly a safe place to live. Yes, we have nasty incidents from time to time – and you will probably read or hear about them in the press – but it’s worth remembering that these actually occur very rarely and that very few of them are random.

It’s also worth remembering that the mere fact that you’re aware of the incident means that the police know about it too and that a number of officers are already working as hard as they can to catch the individual or individuals responsible.

And finally, just a quick reminder that if you do ever suspect you have information about criminality that might be useful to police, the numbers to ring are 999 in an emergency, 0300 333 3000 for the police’s non-emergency number and Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 if you’d rather leave your information anonymously.

Please contact us if you think you can help – without the support of local people policing the Borough of Telford & Wrekin would be much, much harder.