Risk Perception and Communication - Essay Example

Risk Perception and Communication Risk communication involves the exchange of information among groups or individuals regarding potential environmental hazards. For effective risk communication to take place there is a need to adopt the interactive approach. The communicators have to understand the needs of the people for them to communicate appropriately. Thus, the communicators have to provide the public with accurate, clear, and timely information. Effective communication during the emergency periods provides the public with an overview of the steps to take to avoid the risks1. As a result, there is the facilitation of the relief efforts and reduction of anxiety levels. The success of effective communication, especially on the security issues depends on the public confidence and trust in the government agencies. That is how the public perceives the security agencies. Cases of terrorism have raised an alarm and the general public depends on the government to get adequate security. Hence, police services are very crucial for the public to be assured that there is peace and security in the country2. Building and nurturing trust in the communication process is useful in the risk management process. Truthful, open, frank and honest in communication ensures that there is an effective outcome3. Individuals are more likely to deliver information to a person they trust. When the public does not have adequate knowledge of the risk at hand, trust plays a crucial role4. The public has to be given a guideline on how to avoid the risk and they will only follow instructions from a person they trust. Trust also plays a crucial role in public perception about the severity of the risk that the people may face5. The government has to play a role to ensure that the public is aware of any risk that may occur. Primarily, terrorists’ intention is to generate uncertainty and fear in order to challenge the emergency communication process. When fear is created, the public does not obtain the appropriate information because fear affects the process of communication6. In cases of terrorists attack, the public perception of confidence and trust in the government agencies affects the compliance with the emergency response recommendations. As a result, the outcome of the attack is negative as terrorists easily come in and manipulate the people with their communication strategies7. Policy makers have to be knowledgeable about the terrorists’ communication strategies so that they can gain trust from the general public8. Research shows that the police who are unbiased and without vested interests are perceived by the public as more trustworthy. For instance, the anthrax attacks which happened in 2001 left Americans feeling that the state was not prepared enough to deal with the terrorists issues9. Most people felt that they were not provided with adequate information to deal with the attacks. Only 53 % felt that they were given enough information to respond to the attacks10. The hyperbole surrounding terrorists’ activities in United Kingdom articulates the threats that people face as a result of the terrorist activities. The terrorists’ activities are classified as known unknowns11. That means that the security and the police service know that the terrorist activities are present but in most cases they do not know their strategies when they are planning an attack. Thus, the police service has to come up with research to ensure that they learn the terrorists’ activities and know how to deal with them12. To achieve that, they must seek the active support of the general public through formulating a communication strategy. Research shows that community involvement in security services enhances public confident in the policing activities. The police can only enhance legitimacy by positive public interaction13. It is important for the police service to understand the traditional structure of the terrorists’ for them to curb the terrorists’ activities easily. The terrorists are said to come from an organization that does not have a well-defined chain of command. The terrorists are also increasingly networked globally14. The development of technology has made the communication of the terrorists’ activities easy as they communicate from one continent to another. The police service has to identify the communication points and cut down the links15. Through communication, terrorists’ succeed in their activities. The terrorists’ also have access to weapons of mass destruction which makes them overpower the police service. The police service has to adopt new weapons in order to protect the general public16. The moods of communication also have to be upgraded to counter all the terrorists’ activities. That means there is a need to adopt the new technologies in the communication strategy17. Additionally, the terrorists are less discriminative in their targets. Their activities and attacks are unpredictable. They can attack a local village or urban areas. They have a wide spectrum of the target areas. Thus, the terrorists are not only dangerous and apocalyptic but also less amenable to some of the traditional forms of control. The police service does not have a clear picture of the route to follow to protect the general public from the terrorists’ activities. Thus, the police service has to design services that meet both local and international public18. They also need to engage the general public in the decision-making process so that they may know that they are protected. Thus, the public has to understand the legitimacy of the police actions. The police service has to account for any wrong thing that befalls the general public. Poor police and community relations have a negative perception on the general public19. For instance, most of the civilians complain that the communication style of the police is rude. Hence, the police have to improvise a strategy to communicate with the public to gain positive perception20. Resilience The police officers have to become more resilient in the work they do. They should ensure that they help the affected families to be strong even after a terrorist attack. The police have to be in a position to assist individuals who have stress-related issues21. Although the police officers are exposed to potentially disturbing incidences, they have to know how to deal with them before they affect their overall functionality. Most of the resilient individuals still have the ability to function normally even when they are exposed to distressing situations22. Resilience is shown by the character of the individual and the character of the situation at hand. How a person reacts to a given situation determines the ability to deal with different situations. When the police officers are resilient, they have an inner strength that enables them to deal with challenges that come on their way. They have the ability to view dead bodies and the strength to help the deceased23. Resilient gives the police officers the strength to know how to handle stress and even find meaning in life even when situations are not good. When the police officers are resilient, they experience grief, pain, and anger but they are still able to function both psychologically and physically well24. Police officers need to be resilient because they are serving the members of the communities. Communication only happens appropriately when the parties involved have a sober mind and can make sound decisions25. Hence, hard situations should not knock down a police officer such that they there is no flow of communication from one party to another. They are always encouraged to stay strong and focused regardless of the situation at hand. Resilience also protects one from serious mental conditions such as anxiety and depression. Thus, resilience helps one to cope with every situation in life because it gives one the confidence to face some challenging situations in life26. The work which police officers perform has a toxic effect on the overall well-being of the officer’s state of resiliency. They are faced with hard situations during their duty, and they have to know how to cope with every situation that comes on their way27. They have to have an inner drive that will enable them perform their activities appropriately regardless of the situations and the conditions they face in life. With the increased rate of terrorism, officers are expected to provide lasting solutions to the members of the society. Some of them even surrender their lives for the sake of the general society. Thus, the police officers are exposed to both chronic trauma and acute degrades as they perform their work28. Research shows that a strong state of resilience among the police officers helps them to mitigate the stressors and toxicity of the police work. They sustain wellness so as to provide effective and empathic police services in times of crises. Police officers are expected to nurture and sustain resilience. One of the key factors to be considered to sustain resilience is mindfulness29. Mindfulness is a form of stress reduction program which mainly focuses on the activities that aim at ensuring that the mind remains alert30. Warrior resilience is a very important tool in fighting global terrorism. The management of the police should also come up with a risk management program to help the police officers deal with their issues. The police officers may look strong but getting a lot of pain from inside. Police officers focus on the high demand of the external public and come up with ways of dealing with their issues to ensure that they maintain security. They are committed to providing services to the public; their interest is the general public. Surveillance With the new developments, the surveillance sector has been of great help to the police service. Through surveillance, the police curb crimes especially in the cities. According to Benjamin and Neyland, the field of surveillance is growing at a rapid rate. Governments are improvising new ways of curbing crime activities in their country in order to improve security31. However, the issue of privacy has cropped up in recently as the CCTV cameras do not allow privacy. The police have to know the extent to which they are supposed to intrude on other people’s privacy through the use of the CCTV cameras. The development of surveillance tends to affect people’s freedom. In the United States, the National Security Agency believed that mass terrorism can be prevented by incorporating mass surveillance in most of the highly populated areas. Surveillance helps the police officers to monitor all the activities of the criminals32. Surveillance activity may either be covert or overt. Covert is where the surveillance is carried out without the knowledge of the subject while overt is where the subject is aware that surveillance is being carried out. In curbing crime, surveillance is done on covert bases. In most of the states, the regulation of surveillance is achieved through a mixture of different laws. The general privacy legislation is done on voluntary bases in most of the institutions33. Most of the organizations aim at safeguarding their privacy, and they would like to ensure that privacy is maintained on their premises. Hence, the police have to ensure that they consider the security and privacy of every individual in an organization. There are common laws that have been put in place such as the law of trespass. While installing the surveillance device, it is important to follow the law and avoid trespassing into other people’s privacy because it is against the law. Surveillance checks on the fulfillment of some of the things such as protection of the employer’s interest and protecting the property34. Although surveillance is one of the security measures that the police officers use to maintain security, it is not convenient to deal with terrorist issues. Surveillance can be used to monitor people’s movements but not their emotions, perceptions, and thoughts. Terrorist activities are planned in the mind, and the police cannot control their thoughts. Installation of surveillance devices is not very instrumental in curbing the terrorists’ activities because they also have developed advanced technologies which support their activities. They locate where the surveillance machines are, and they may destroy them even before the attack. Additionally, the surveillance machines are only installed in some of the areas. On the other hand, terrorists attack any place at any time. That means that even mass surveillance is not effective in curbing the terrorists’ activities35. Policy changes The law enforcement agencies face a lot of problems as a result of the emergency of the globally coordinated national security threats. Terrorists have more sophisticated and networks and strategies. As a result, the police need to develop strategies that will help them curb the crime activities. To counter the terrorists’ activities, the police have to improve their investigation skills and come up with new ways of information acquisition36. They are also supposed to ensure that they acquire adequate knowledge about the terrorists’ organizations. The policy changes on police service are pegged on three main aspects which include globalization, expansion of the human rights, and the development of the internet-based forms of communication37. Crises management is determined by the three factors as the police aim at giving quality services to the community and curbing the terrorists’ activities. There some of technological innovations that have been introduced in the policing sector to improve the effectiveness of their work. They include DNA profiling, fingerprint technology, CCTV cameras, and tape recorders. The innovations have greatly influenced how the organization functions. Computer technology which was introduced 30 years ago in the policing sector allows mass retrieval, collection, and storage of large amount of data38. However, research shows that the introduction of the computer technology in the policing sector led to bureaucracy. Authentication had to be made in some of the actions before they proceed to next actions. As a result, there is a low speed in delivery of the required information. Additionally, capturing of data is also done at a slow pace to make sure that information collected is accurate. On the other hand, the introduction of the internal electronic system in the policing sector has made it easy for them to access unlimited information making them performs their job better. Policy changes also include encouraging the growth of information sharing and promoting a lateral form of communication rather than vertical. Lateral communication facilitates the exchange of ideas from one person to another each as each person in an organization is allowed to share their views and ideas in regards to certain issues. Thus, through the lateral form of communication the police services are improved39. Globalization is also a factor that the policing sector needs to put into consideration. Terrorism affects the global society; hence there is a need for cooperation to improve the communication networks across the national boundaries. Through globalization, the police get an opportunity to be exposed to new responsibilities and roles. The United Nations also urges the police to be flexible so that they may be of great help in case of terrorist attack from any corner of the world. The police have to take a global perspective because the terrorists’ activities are global and individuals who are involved in the terrorists’ activities come from all parts of the world, and they communicate and coordinate their activities effectively40. Risk management In the police sector, the policy and risk management unit is responsible for maintenance and development of service documentation, procedures, and policies. Documentation, policies, and procedures are required in the legislation of the regulations required to ensure that all the police services run as they are required by law41. Risk management entails protecting the society and the community against risks such as terrorists’ attacks. The risk management section ensures that all the civil actions are coordinated and brought on board. Risk management identifies and controls exposure to potential liabilities and risks. Through risk management, the country reduces the risk of physical harm and avoidance of the increased threats of litigation42. The police have to identify the risks and the frequency of exposure to the risks. For instance, in terrorists’ activities the police have to identify the main areas that they target and put measures in place to ensure that people in that area are not affected43. After the police identify the risks, they have to explore different methods of dealing with the risk. Terrorists mostly aim at attacking the highly populated areas. Thus, the police have to put measures in place to ensure that populated areas are protected against any external attacks from the terrorists. Through the process, they have to choose the appropriate treatment to manage the risks once they occur44. They may be forced to change some of the policies so as to deal with the situation at hand. There is a need to avoid bureaucracy in risk management because through the red tape procedures the police force will not curb the terrorists’ activities effectively. There is also a need for continuous evaluation to ensure that all the policies outlined are put in place. Understanding the policies of the risk management procedure is an important aspect to ensure that the right procedure is followed during the risk management process45. In the police sector, the risk management involves three main aspects which include staffing, policy development, and planning. Through planning the policing sector sets the risk management goals. Staffing ensures that the required staffs are employed to fulfill the set goals in risk management46. There also must be clearly defined policies to ensure that the parties involved in the risk management process are aware of the steps they are supposed to take. Through that the policy makers prioritize the risks, and they are aware of the actions they are supposed to take to prevent the risks from occurring47. The police have also to be trained in the risk management strategies that they should implement. During the staffing process, training is incorporated to ensure that policy implementers know the actions that they are supposed to take. Training will involve passing on the techniques that the parties should use in the risk management process48. Risk management has a process needs to be monitored to ensure that effective measures are always put in place. There also needs to be accountability in the risk management process. The police have to learn to be accountable for every action that they undertake49. There should also be an assessment phase where all the information gathered about risk management is looked into. Assessment of information enables the policy makers to know the changes to make in policy making to manage the risks. Thus, a successful risk management process should be adaptive and flexible50. If one of the procedures in risk management is ineffective, another procedure can be implemented to prevent risk from occurring. Communication is also a key factor during risk management. For a risk management program to be effective, it has to be cyclical in nature. That means there will be feedback from the receiver. Bibliography Adam. Comparing UK, US andCanadian Security and intelligence Efforts against. Chicago : Published online, 2010. Aradau, Claudia. Politics of Catastrophe Genealogies of the Unknown. Chicago : Chicago Press, 2003. Archbold, Carol. Police accountability, risk management, and legal advising. New York: LFB Scholarly Pub, 2004. Ashley, Jonathan. 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