30 SECONDS: Casey Rayborn Hicks

Within days of Sid Gautreaux taking over in December as sheriff of East Baton Rouge Parish, his office started e-mailing crime suspects’ mug shots and news updates to local media—everyone from The Advocate to City Social.

Gautreaux’s public information officer, Casey Rayborn Hicks, the 25-year-old daughter-in-law of Gautreaux’s political ally Ted Hicks, helped to dispel any grumbling of nepotism with her refreshingly open approach to department news.

Why issue news advisories?

Why not get the community involved and get information out there as soon as possible? Then someone might be able to call us with information.

What information can’t you release?

Homicides, for instance. I have to meet with our lieutenants almost every day to find out what is going on and what we can release. I never want to release information that harms the investigation.

How have TV stations responded?

They’ve been great, especially with the “Wanted” items. And when we get photographs from surveillance video of robberies they’ve put it on immediately or as soon as they can. They’ll call me at night or on weekends, and they are really appreciative. They’ve said they aren’t used to having (access to) someone like that. I tell them that it’s my job.

Gotten any resistance?

Not really. The sheriff has been great. He has built public information into the hierarchy of this agency so that I’m at the table when decisions are made, which allows me to be proactive and face things head on.

You were proactive when one of your deputies was charged with DUI on New Year’s Eve.

I put out the press release two hours after the accident, before he was booked. The downside could be that some people will say we shouldn’t put it if all these robberies and crimes are happening.

To manage the perception of safety—

Yeah, they think it makes us look bad. But to me, it’s the reality, and in doing this we can improve the situation. In communication theory you study about the one-way flow of information. You want to have a mechanism for feedback. You want a two-way flow. To me public information is not just getting info out to the public.

Or putting out fires.

Right. It should be proactive with information and education, and it needs to be put out there as quickly as possible. We are public servants. That’s our job. Public information should not be propaganda. If we do our job of making the community safer, then our image will take care of itself.

For more, visit ebrso.org