Public information officers: The civilianization of a criminal justice profession

Abstract

Criminal justice Public Information Officers (PIOs) are a unique criminal justice specialty and key gatekeepers in the production of crime and justice information. The findings of a 1998 survey of the Florida PIO professional association members and nonmembers are reported. The results show that a typical PIO is a middle-aged, sworn, college-educated male. PIOs have also shifted away from criminal justice and communication degrees to reflect a broader, more diverse set of disciplines. Comparing association members with nonmembers, civilian PIOs, especially those from larger agencies, concentrate in the state's professional association while sworn PIOs, particularly from smaller agencies, dominate the nonmember ranks. Professional association member PIOs also tend to be assigned a greater range of job tasks and to spend more time on those tasks than the nonassociation members. The results suggest that a civilian/sworn dichotomy reported in prior research remains significant for PIOs and has come to overlap with a professional association member/nonmember division. The implications for criminal justice agencies and for the PIO as a criminal justice career are discussed.