EDITORIAL - Plaques of patriotism? Hot pursuit operation?

For a while there, journalists all over the country had a sinking feeling about bad things to come when news reports came out that the PNP chief had banned media access to police blotters without prior clearance from the chiefs of different police units.

Thankfully, the PNP swiftly called for a press conference to clarify matters. In effect the PNP said the order was taken out of context and that the real intent was to decentralize the giving of information from central headquarters to the local levels.

Well and good that things were promptly clarified. But the incident should not pass without valuable lessons being learned by law enforcement agencies on the matter of precise or even wrong communication.

Miscommunication or imprecise information can lead to unintended problems or, at the very least, some embarrassing situations and a lot of red faces. The dignity and respectability of law enforcement agencies are crucial in maintaining their trust from the public.

Even seemingly innocuous statements or labels can provoke anything from snickers to backstabbing that, left unchecked for so long, can erode that crucial trust law enforcers so badly need if they are to do a good job.

For instance, the Dangerous Drugs Board recently gave 23 PDEA agents individual plaques of patriotism. Plaques of what? Patriotism? For what? For busting drug addicts? This is not to question the merit of giving awards. But patriotism? Hello!

Okay, by a long shot, arresting drug addicts is good for the country. But when you hang that plaque on the wall, no visitor who sees it will ever thing it has anything to do with drugs busting. This is not nit-picking. This is what we mean by avoiding some red faces.

Another seemingly trivial thing -- this misuse and overuse of the term "hot pursuit operation." Anybody with a two-cents worth command of the English language will visualize a car chase or something to that effect on hearing the term used by police.

But that is apparently not what the police mean when using the term. They have expropriated the term to mean a simple followup of a given case. Unfortunately, reporters who do not know any better are sustaining this "police English" to the confusion of the public.