WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas — In a room full of North Texas law enforcement leaders, the conversation gets real. They're sharing their professional and personal experiences during critical incidents, like the deadly Allen Premium Outlets mall shooting.
Zachary Flores is not only the executive director of public safety for the city of Sherman, he's also following his father's footsteps.
"My story is a little bit more personal,” Flores said. "My father is one of the deputy chiefs there in Allen. And so, whenever I heard about the incident, it hit very close to home. And it's one that caused a number of emotions in me."
Flores and other law enforcement leaders meet four times a year. This time the "how, when and what" information to share publicly is top of mind, especially after recent major critical incidents in Texas. For example: the stand off at a synagogue in Colleyville and the deadly school shooting in Uvalde.
White Settlement Police Chief Christopher Cook served as one of the keynote speakers at Thursday’s law enforcement meeting in Dallas at the campus of the University of North Texas. The topics ranged from critical responses, information sharing, mutual aid and how to quickly disseminate information to the media.
"So, that's kind of what we were able to talk about and look at some lessons learned,” Cook said. “There's always, you know, we critique ourselves as a profession to become better."
Cook said police departments must get accurate information to the public for the safety of everyone involved.
The quarterly meetings are part of the Caruth Police Institute. It represents a partnership between philanthropy, policing and academia throughout North Texas. It's housed at the Dallas Police Department.
Now, there's even a guidebook for police departments to help them improve their image to those they've sworn to protect and serve.
“We have a lot of community engagement programs, but making sure that we're reaching our audiences. This branding guidebook is designed to take all the work out of it," Cook said.
"Literally, you should be able to open it up, flip to a page and learn really quickly how important it is to manage your reputation even when you are in the midst of controversy. There are ways to navigate that and to keep your reputation intact," he said. "We don't spend as much time as we should on branding."
Cook started working on being a contributor to the guidebook while working for the Arlington Police Department. Cook has long since thrown the “no comment” response out of the window.