It's every public information officer's worst nightmare. It's Friday afternoon and the phone rings. A reporter is on the line with questions regarding an incident that's just occurred involving your agency; an incident which poses a threat to the safety of the community. This is the first you've heard of it. Your unfinished crisis communications plan, abandoned months ago, looms in your mind like an unpaid bill come due. Following your instincts, you crawl under the desk and assume the fetal position.

A crisis communications plan provides you with a step-by-step method of dealing with those incidents and situations that occur at any public agency that mean unwanted media attention.

The plan need not be lengthy. In fact, it's more likely to be used if it's concise. It's not intended to be a guide to every conceivable situation you'll encounter. Rather, it's a set of rules and policies that help ensure the smooth flow of information between your agency and the media.

Five Basic Rules
Any crisis communications plan should contain the following basic rules.

—One person serves as the spokesperson for your agency. Your switchboard operator and key office secretaries should know to whom calls should be referred. By centralizing communication, you avoid the problem of giving out conflicting information to the media.

—Provide only verified facts, not opinion or conjecture. In crisis situations, especially those involving injuries or death, there is pressure to disseminate information quickly. Media on a deadline will press you to verify unconfirmed information. Information that later turns out to be false puts the credibility of your agency in question and, in some cases, could come back to haunt you in court if your agency is subsequently sued.

—Don't place blame until you're sure of the facts. Placing blame with the wrong party also hurts your credibility. In most cases, it takes time for an assessment to be made. Resist media pressure for instant answers.

—Don't say "no comment." If you can't answer a question, explain to the reporter why you don't know the answer. "No comment" is the phrase of the guilty. You have nothing to hide, so there's no need to use it. A better answer is, "I'm not in a position to say right now."

—There's no such thing as "off the record." Giving reporters information "off the record" merely tempts them to use it. Reporters who get information off the record from you are sometimes inclined to confront one of your colleagues with the off the record information saying, "Can you confirm that such and such happened?" At that point, it becomes "on the record."

Putting Together a Crisis Communications Plan
It's important to have the support and approval of your agency's director for your plan. Often, with many other pressing issues and concerns, the approval of the crisis communications plan is a low priority — until it's too late. Keep the plan concise so it is accessible to those who must approve it. A twenty-page plan will sit unread and unapproved.

The plan needs four basic components — a definition of when it should be activated, a step-by-step outline of how information should flow from your organization to the media in a crisis, a list of the home and work phone numbers of key people in your agency, and the five basic rules outlined above. The phone numbers and step-by-step procedure should be concise enough to fit on a wallet-sized card. This card should be carried by your key personnel at all times.

Implementing the Plan
Don't wait until a crisis occurs to test the plan. After it is approved, meet with the people who will be involved and go over it. Make sure everyone understands his or her role. Unanticipated questions may arise. It's better to answer them at this stage than when a reporter is on hold, waiting to talk with someone.

Finally, having a plan doesn't guarantee success. It's always difficult to anticipate how a crisis will play out in the media. But, by having a communication plan in place, you'll maximize your control of the situation — and avoid the urge to crawl under the desk. •

Page 20 / Illinois Municipal Review / August 1991