Polk County Sheriff's Office and How Not To Conduct Public Relations

Every once in a while the police conduct a PR event intending to create good will and make themselves personable in the eyes of the people that occupy neighborhoods in the inner city. This event didn’t work out exactly as planned.

Well in this case the public policy about safety isn’t even making it from the Courthouse and across the street to the Polk County Sheriff’s office. Seems in this instance the sheriff's department needs a good lecture on gun safety and perhaps the curiosity of young boys. But then again it seems the nature of this event was to do just that; create curiosity in children about law enforcement and why having the police in your neighborhood is a good thing. You know the kind of visitor you’d want to invite back. But that’s not how it all worked out.

A 3-year-old was shot by a Polk County Sheriff deputy’s shot gun that was on display in a police car at a public park in Des Moines. The car is reported to have been part of “Clowns at the Carousel event at Union Park” where hundreds of people were in the area when the gun was fired by what is believed to be a young boy who was allowed to sit in the sheriff’s car. Allegedly he was sitting in the front seat, pulled the trigger and the shotgun fired and either glass or part of the ammunition struck her in the chest and arm. (Serious I’m not making this up.)

A spokesperson for the department stated that when a shotgun is stored it’s not supposed to have a round in the chamber. (You’re kidding? We didn’t know that.)

What is it that we preach to parents about gun locks and the need to protect children from their own curiosity when it comes to guns?  Who’s job was it to set the vehicle up before allowing children access? Who loaded the gun and never unloaded it? What is the exact policy of the department and what is the identity of the officer or officers who failed to carry out the right protocol? Are the offenders going to be disciplined? And lastly, where is the apology to the mother, baby and citizens of that neighborhood?

And the tort reformer said, “Why are there so many lawsuits?”

And the 3-year-old’s mother replied, “The question isn’t why there are so many lawsuits; the question is why there are so many injuries?”

Summer in the City – Joe Cocker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8HsEbb-9sA