Your Law Enforcement Agency Has a Brand. Here’s How to Identify, Measure, and Improve It In 2026

If you want to understand how your department is perceived, trusted, and remembered in your community and beyond, there’s no mystery involved.

OS Media was created by, and serves, professional public safety agencies.

You don’t need a crystal ball.

You don't need fancy analytics software (but it does help).

You really just need to be present where your community already is...online.

Not chasing viral moments.

Not dancing or lip syncing for likes.

But deliberately watching patterns, conversations, and behavior.

Exactly like you're trained to do.

Who’s engaging with your content?

What are they saying when you’re not in the room?

And when your department’s name comes up, does it inspire confidence or ridicule?

That’s how modern agencies measure awareness and have a vocally supportive community. I know because I saw it first hand when I built that online community for a 200+ person agency in Colorado.

Below are four professional-grade ways to do it and how strong departments are using these techniques to recruit better officers, strengthen community trust, and control their narrative heading into 2026.

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Visibility Does Not Equal Awareness

A post reaching 10,000 people is great! But it doesn’t mean it made an impact in the way that you would want or that would affect your agency mission.

Real awareness shows up when people:

• Save content

• Share it privately or publicly

• Search your department by name

• Talk about you elsewhere

Impressions tell you that someone saw you. But their behavior will tell you if they remembered you.

What to track:

• Post saves (long-term value)

• Post shares (trust + relevance)

• Positive mentions, i.e. "@CityPD did such a great job!"

• Branded search traffic

• Follower growth rate (momentum beats spikes)

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Social Listening Is Your Early Warning System

Social media is your radar system. If something is gaining traction, good or bad, this is where you'll see it firs. It's also where you can judge how "loud" it is. If you’re not listening, you’re reacting to everything instead of being proactive. It's not a great tactic for policing or social media.

When I served as a PIO and Media Relations Manager for a large Colorado police department, my priority was simple, be present in the same digital spaces as our community. By actively engaging on a human level, like I would on the street in uniform, we were able to make a connection as an agency.

And by not posting and disappearing, we doubled our followers across every social media channel we had and dramatically increased investigative tips and engagement.

The key wasn’t automation, it was authenticity. Your community knows when you’re listening versus when you’re just “checking the box" because you have a Facebook account.

Monitor:

• Direct and indirect agency and personnel mentions

• Overall sentiment trends

• Regional comparisons (who’s gaining trust, applicants, and attention...and why)

  
  

This is your trust barometer and the best part is it’s free.

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Connect Awareness to Action

Awareness without action is just noise. You're not trying to be a TikTok sensation, you should have clear mission and know what success looks like for your agency.

When engagement spikes, ask yourself a couple questions:

• Did your website traffic increase? Which page?

• Did your applications increase? Which ones?

• Did community program sign-ups rise?

• Did followers stay for a permanent bump or disappear after the moment passed?

  
  

The goal is not attention. The goal is intentional movement toward applications, events, and trust indicators. Strong branding doesn’t just attract eyes. It directs behavior. Again, like a good officer.

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Tell Your Story or Someone Else Will

If you don’t own your narrative, someone else will...and they probably live in their mom's basement still. In today’s environment, silence is interpreted as avoidance. (or even worse, guilt). “No comment” speaks louder than literally anything you could say.

Measure how often your department is part of, or the center, of the conversation compared to:

• Nearby agencies

• Local media outlets

• Community groups

  
  

That’s how you know if your message is actually landing. Bonus points if other agency's employees comment that they wished their agency did outreach like you!

This is also a great time to have your PIO / Media Relations Team reach out to a few of your local reporters and ask to buy them a coffee. During your morning joe, give them your best contact info and ask if you can send them some cool and interesting things your agency is up to.

This not only builds a positive relationship with an outside organization that has a direct impact on how your agency is perceived and puts a face to your agency. I also received countless calls on my cell phone from local reporters asking for info on a situation that we were unaware of at the agency, alerting us to a potential problem before we found out the hard way*.

*If this happens, be honest if you have no idea what they're talking about and ask for some time to make calls and knock on office doors. Then once you know, actually get back to them. The key to a good relationship is it's two-way. If you take care of your local new agencies, they'll take care of you.

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🔑 Key Takeaways for Command Staff

Move beyond vanity metrics this year. You’re not one of the Paul brother’s trying to fight geriatric boxers.

Instead, build a strategy that tracks:

· Agency mentions (positive and negative)

· Community sentiment

· Application link clicks

· Search-optimized social media copy

Then, translate those numbers into outcomes leadership actually cares about like:

· Increase in quantity and quality of leads

· Recruitment candidate quality and quantity improvements

· Daily community engagement metrics

Your branding, both digital and physical, is the first impression future officers and community members will see. Think of it like this. A squared-away officer with a straight gig line versus a soup sandwich. Which one inspires confidence at the door?

How a professionally branded agency looks next to the typical one we see...which are you?

If you look sloppy, they won’t get to know you. If they don’t know you, they won’t trust you. If they don’t trust you, they won’t believe your messaging. And if they don’t believe you, how effective is your messaging...really?

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A Smarter Way Forward

If your department is ready to strengthen recruitment efforts, show up consistently in your community, and present a more professional image heading into 2026, let's talk. We can help create your strategy, guide you on what media to get to execute that strategy, assist your media team with weak spots, or act as your full in-house media relations team for you.

OS Media Group partners with law enforcement and public safety agencies across the United States agencies to deliver expert-level branding, media relations, photo and video services, and digital presence boosting without adding strain to your budget or stress to your team.

Call OS Media Group to start building visibility that leads to more trust, better applicants, and controls of your narrative.

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Kent Keller is a seasoned Brand Consultant, Social Media Manager, and Copywriter. He also acts as Chief Executive Officer of OS Media Group. With over a decade of experience as a police officer and nearly five years as the Public Information Officer and Media Relations Manager for a prominent police agency, Kent brings a wealth of expertise to the proverbial table. His background, combined with repeated successes in developing successful marketing campaigns and brand strategies, uniquely positions him to assist you effectively engaging with your customers and community members.