Owensboro Police Department Officer Andrew Boggess has worked in law enforcement for many years, but he started his position as OPD’s Public Information Officer one year ago last May. Keeping in contact with and holding press conferences for the various news agencies in relation to OPD-related events is one of Boggess’s many jobs, but the local PIO has had a busy, eventful first year in his new position.
Boggess had worked as a patrol officer for both OPD and Louisville Metro Police Department before starting his position as PIO for OPD. With increased shootings in Owensboro over the last couple of years, and a high-profile murder case taking place during his first month on the job, Boggess wasn’t exactly eased into his new position.
“It’s been a very busy year. There’s been a lot of learning going on,” Boggess said. “We’ve had several high-profile cases. We’ve had two death-penalty-eligible cases come up, which is unusual in the first year — one of those being the triple homicide that occurred in January.”
The homicide of Owensboro Health Regional Hospital nurse Erica Owen was the first death-penalty case in his new role. As a part of his position, Boggess is in charge of contacting each news agency, whether it be TV, radio, newspaper, online news source or those working in any other medium of journalism.
“That was about a month after I took over, so that was one of the first major incidents we had,” Boggess said. “We kind of had a rash of several different cases happen during that time frame, but that was one of the first major challenges I handled.”
In his position as PIO, Boggess has developed relationships with local news outlets, especially with reporters. Boggess is every news agency’s go-to person for TV and print journalism interviews, so he is required to be both well read on each case, as well as well spoken for on-the-spot interviews that may happen. Whether in the middle of the night or on a holiday weekend, Boggess is in charge of taking phone calls from news outlets.
“It’s an interesting position. It’s led me to make some interesting contacts,” Boggess said.
The FBI offers Law Enforcement Executive Development Association (LEEDA) classes that Boggess was able to attend with several other PIOs from across the country. During that time, he met with others who understood his role in public relations and were able to provide insight for his position.
“Those classes helped me develop strategies for furthering the role I play in my position as PIO — both on a professional level, and to help me develop contacts with those other agencies,” Boggess said.
Also important to Boggess’ position is social media, as Boggess maintains OPD’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, often posting information on events such as robberies, shootings, drug charges and car accidents.
“The job I have now is more of a big picture position,” Boggess said. “I’m dealing with a lot of the major crimes that happen. I work with the Crime Prevention Unit a lot, and I’m the face for OPD at community events. I have a lot of interaction with the community in that capacity.”
Coming from his former position as a patrol officer, Boggess said his new role is different, and that both have their advantages and disadvantages. Even more, the role of PIO is one that Boggess expects to keep learning more about as time goes on.
“This is a job that’s difficult to define, even a year into it,” Boggess said. “There are still new things that I’m figuring out how to do. A year into it, I think I’m much better than I was even a month ago, though I still have a lot to learn. I’m far from being a master at it.”
For the future, Boggess said he can envision law enforcement all over the country undergoing a lot of changes, and he said his role will be no different. A wealth of those changes will likely stem from technological advancements, Boggess believes.
“Social media is a huge component of those changes,” Boggess said. “Traditional media wasn’t a major factor in law enforcement forty years ago, but then it became huge, and it still is. I think the entire career of law enforcement is going to go through changes over the next 10 to 20 years, and I expect my position to follow the same pattern.”
