S5 - E7 Taylor Merriss - Special Projects Coordinator - Evansville Police, Evansville Indiana

Summary: In this episode of the PIO Podcast, Special Projects Coordinator Taylor Merriss from the Evansville Police Department shares insights about her role, community engagement strategies, and the importance of transparency in law enforcement. She discusses her background, the challenges of recruiting, and the innovative ways the department connects with the community, including their podcast 'What's Your 20'. Taylor emphasizes the significance of building trust and relationships within the community and highlights her experiences in various outreach initiatives.

Taylor's Bio: Officer Taylor Merriss was born and raised in southeast side Evansville. She is proud of her roots and alma mater: Bosse High School and the University of Southern Indiana. She was a collegiate athlete who played golf and received criminal justice and sociology degrees. She has been a member of the Evansville Police Department for 9 years and in her most current position, as Special Projects Coordinator, for nearly 4 years. She takes pride in being a liaison to the local and national media and her community. She won the Evansville Regional Economic Partnerships’ Young Professional of the Year for 2024.
Taylors Email - tmerriss@evansvillepolice.com

Transcript

Robert Tornabene (00:01.276)
Today on the PIO Podcast, we'd like to welcome Special Projects Coordinator Taylor Merriss from the Evansville Police Department in Evansville, Indiana. Welcome to the show.

Taylor Merriss (00:11.757)
Thank you, thanks for having me.

Robert Tornabene (00:14.364)
Taylor, let's get some demographics out of the way first. Where's Evansville at for those that don't know where it's located?

Taylor Merriss (00:20.706)
Yeah. So Evansville is at the very Southern tip of Indiana. We're 30 minutes from Illinois and about five minutes from Kentucky. So we're right there at the tip.

Robert Tornabene (00:31.954)
Gotcha. What's the current population there?

Taylor Merriss (00:34.39)
About 125,000.

Robert Tornabene (00:37.074)
And what's the sworn and civilian professional staff of the Evansville Police Department?

Taylor Merriss (00:43.554)
Yeah, so we're allowed to have 289, but as most agencies, we're running a little low. So we're about 20, 25 low and then about 50 civilian staff as well.

Robert Tornabene (00:55.204)
wow. Considerably down there on the civilian side. Wow. Mel, like everybody they're hiring, it's tough. It's hard to get people nowadays. Nobody wants to be involved with the police department anymore. It's very tough. So take

Taylor Merriss (01:08.14)
Yeah, we've changed a couple things in terms of recruiting though, so we're getting the numbers back up there.

Robert Tornabene (01:15.068)
That's good. How often do you guys have Academy classes?

Taylor Merriss (01:18.414)
Two times a year in our academy is actually here in Evansville too, which is nice.

Robert Tornabene (01:22.918)
that's convenient. That's great when you don't have to send them too far. So Taylor, thank you for being on the show today. Could you tell our listeners about your background? Because you've got an interesting background.

Taylor Merriss (01:35.46)
Yeah, so I grew up here in Evansville. I graduated from Bossie High School in 2009 and then I went to the University of Southern Indiana and my dream was to be a police officer. So I got a major in criminal justice and sociology. But while I was there, I played high school golf as well as cheerleading and softball and I didn't want to play any sports whenever I went to college. I just wanted to enjoy the college experience.

But my freshman year, I got so bored and had so much extra time that I walked onto the golf team. And at that point, it was division two. They are division one now. But I got to play college golf for four years. And then that following year, I came on the police department.

Robert Tornabene (02:19.535)
that's pretty cool. So special projects coordinator, that sounds like you have a really big area of operation that you're responsible for. Is that the case?

Taylor Merriss (02:30.306)
I do, and I'm one of those people within our department where we don't know who should do this. well, I bet Taylor will do it because I can't say no. And so I do a lot of things in the department and I take a lot of pride in what I do for the department. Mainly three points of emphasis. I manage our social media accounts. I'm a backup PIO whenever our sergeant is unavailable. And then community engagement, which is huge. And that's where I really like to spend a lot of my time.

I take a lot of pride in either recreating relationships that need to be reformed within the community or just in general being amongst people who have never experienced being around law enforcement. And so I really enjoy what I do. I think I have the best position on the department. A lot of people probably argue that, but in my professional opinion, I really, really enjoy what I do.

Robert Tornabene (03:22.576)
Awesome. What social media platforms does Evansville PD have currently?

Taylor Merriss (03:29.016)
Yeah, we have a lot. We don't utilize all of them currently, but Facebook, course, Instagram, Twitter. We do have a Snapchat, which is rare in law enforcement. We have a TikTok account. I think we have a LinkedIn. We don't really get on much of it or next door. YouTube and Spotify.

Robert Tornabene (03:50.414)
Okay, so you have a decent spread. Do you plan on adding anything?

Taylor Merriss (03:55.172)
I hope not. There's no intentions, but kind of talking about like our YouTube account, we weren't utilizing it a lot. And so we kind of looked into some other ways to gain some traction there. And so starting a podcast is one of those things, which I think we'll talk about too.

Robert Tornabene (04:13.262)
Yeah, absolutely. We're going to talk about that. Which one is the platform that the vast majority of your followers are on right now?

Taylor Merriss (04:24.012)
Yeah, that would be our Facebook and we have about 90, just a little over 90,000 followers on our Facebook account. And so we take a lot of pride in being transparent at our agency. We have a good working relationship with our news, with our local radio. And so by doing so, we share a lot of information on our social media, especially Facebook, whether it be press releases or just what we're doing in the community.

We really like to share that information to get it out there and be our own news outlet in a sense.

Robert Tornabene (04:54.744)
Awesome. Did you, when you first took over the position, what surprised you about your responsibilities?

Taylor Merriss (05:03.214)
So the position that I'm in currently, it's only been filled by one other person and that person is currently the chief of police. And so it was a position that was kind of formed for him. He's a very outgoing, very involved in the community, very beloved. And so they thought, hey, we need to have him in our community in a different capacity. And so he served in that position for about six years and then tested for Sergeant and actually ended up becoming the assistant chief.

but now he is the current chief. And so I've been in this role for almost four years now. And I think just things that surprised me in the community is what surprised me the most. For example, there was a little girl the other day that said, you're a female police officer. And I said, yeah, I am. She goes, are you allowed to wear makeup? Like just, you know, some of the things that people don't know or have never been exposed to, I think those are the things.

Robert Tornabene (05:58.182)
Mm-hmm.

Taylor Merriss (06:02.232)
that surprised me the most, not as much anything internally, just from my experiences of being in the community. Those are things that surprised me.

Robert Tornabene (06:11.898)
And those connections are great when you can make them because those are great opportunities to open the door for people. Like you said, that may never have come in contact with law enforcement. And since so many young people for us come in contact with law enforcement in negative ways, it's always great when you have a positive, right?

Taylor Merriss (06:29.356)
It is and I did a talk the other day for a group of young adults, older juveniles who have been incarcerated but they're working on getting their GED. Like how am gonna connect with this group of people? And so really I put myself out there. I was very vulnerable and I had a list of 25 questions. Have you guys ever been exposed to this? Have you ever had a tattoo? Have you ever shot a gun? Have you ever?

been pulled over by a police officer or some things that might surprise them about me as a person. And then I told them at the end, said, well, we have something in common, believe it or not, because all of these questions I have done. And so we can relate somehow. And so, you know, it makes it interesting, because at the end, I was like, do you guys feel any better about law enforcement? And they're like, not as much. And I said, well, but but me like you guys can maybe learn to trust me if you see me in the community and.

They're like, well yeah, you're cool. And if you can just change one person's mind on previous experiences, that's the goal.

Robert Tornabene (07:32.536)
Absolutely. As a D1 golfer, what's your average right now? All right, sorry, D2 golfer at the time.

Taylor Merriss (07:38.032)
man, yeah, it so I just got back into golf this year and it's a 7.3 right now, but I'm working on it. I'm gonna get it lower.

Robert Tornabene (07:49.322)
I just had to throw that in there. don't know why I put that in there, but when I'm looking at people's background and I see interesting things I'm going to ask. Okay. So here's another interesting one. I caught that you had participated in the guns and hoses boxing event this year, which is from what I'm understanding of the third year you participated, correct?

Taylor Merriss (07:57.124)
Yeah.

Taylor Merriss (08:07.394)
It is my third year.

Robert Tornabene (08:09.074)
All right. So what was that like? And did you have a background in boxing or martial arts?

Taylor Merriss (08:13.944)
Well, yeah, good question. No, I had never been in a fight in my life until I joined the police academy and learned defensive tactics. And then I realized that I quickly realized that I need more training and what better way to train is to put yourself out there in front of 8,000 people.

watching you in a ring. And so I've done it three years. I've lost all three times, but I've raised a lot of money though in the process and that's what it's all about. And so I tend to put myself in those kinds of situations. I've written the bull three times as well for charity. So I get to do a lot of great things through my department to raise money for charities and nonprofits as well, which is really cool.

Robert Tornabene (09:01.551)
You get 8,000 people to come out to the Guns N Hoses event. Wow.

Taylor Merriss (09:05.954)
Argon's and Hose's has raised like near or over $2 million. We've done really, really well with it.

Robert Tornabene (09:14.008)
That's that's very, very impressive. it sounds like it. mean, eight thousand people, that's that's there are some departments that have a hard time getting 50 people to an event. You're pulling an eight thousand charitable event even so. And it's always fun to watch the cops beat up on each other, right? Or the firemen or fire personnel. So, yeah, absolutely. By the way, congratulations on being named the twenty twenty four young professional of the year from the Evansville

Taylor Merriss (09:17.324)
Yeah, we, it's a whole show.

Taylor Merriss (09:33.838)
Yeah.

Robert Tornabene (09:42.748)
Regional Economic Partnership.

Taylor Merriss (09:45.252)
Thank you. That's totally unexpected.

Robert Tornabene (09:48.114)
What led to that recognition?

Taylor Merriss (09:50.796)
You know, I didn't even know until the day, well, until they started to talk about it whenever my chief and assistant chief and some of our other administrative staff walked in that, my gosh, did I just win in reward? I had no clue. But yeah, my chief wrote me up for it, just kind of highlighting some of the things that I do in the community and do for the department. And I was extremely honored and grateful, totally taken aback. There were plenty of people in that room that

that we're deserving of that award as well. so certainly the highlight of my career so far.

Robert Tornabene (10:26.492)
So you had no clue it was coming at all when you walked in. That's awesome.

Taylor Merriss (10:28.44)
No, I didn't even know, that was the first time I attended that, I didn't even know there was an award.

Robert Tornabene (10:34.002)
Well, that's very cool that they kept it quiet like that and kudos to your chief for recognizing your hard work and all the effort you put in. So one of the main reasons I reached out to you was because I saw that Evansville PD had its own podcast called what's your 20. When did the podcast start?

Taylor Merriss (10:52.346)
So at the beginning of this year, I, we have a new chief, I said, chief Philip Smith and a new mayor. And I really like what I do for the police department. And I wanted to continue doing what I do for the police department. And so I felt like I'd kind of been a little bit stagnant and I needed to create some new programming or create some new, things that might draw people in for the police department. And I tossed around the idea of a podcast for.

quite a while, but I didn't know where to begin. I literally bought a podcast for Dummies book and bought some equipment. And from there, you know, it really kind of came naturally for me. I go to the radio station once a week here anyway, I've been doing that for the past four years. We're very blessed with the relationship that we have with the police or with the radio stations. So talking on the podcast or on the radio is natural. And so

We've had since April is when we started it. It's called What's Your 20. And we utilize our Spotify account and our YouTube account. And something that's interesting to me that we found is the analytics are different. So people that are listening or watching are typically older than what you would see on Facebook or on our Instagram accounts. And so I like that we're reaching out to a different group of people and sharing information that way. And so we've had about 15 episodes now.

and we do it bi-weekly and it can range from an officer to the chief to a chaplain, a previous chief. It's kind of, we're seeing where it goes and so far it's been really well received, mostly by my parents. They love to commend me every other Saturday whenever there's a new one released. But it's a good way to share information and that's big, that's a big thing for our agency is being transparent and sharing information.

Robert Tornabene (12:45.378)
That's awesome. I will say this podcasts are, it's an interesting, like you talk about the demographics and a lot of times you don't realize that that demographic that you're picking up used to be the old talk radio demographic. And that's kind of like what podcasts are becoming for that demographic. So you do pick up a different crowd, which may not necessarily be on quote unquote social. but they'll, they'll listen to a podcast because somebody got them and connected to it.

I'm going to geek out a little bit here. What kind of, what kind of equipment did you put together for it?

Taylor Merriss (13:14.018)
Yeah.

Taylor Merriss (13:20.244)
man, you're gonna ask me the tough questions now. So I have a, what's the correct term? It's where I can change the volume. Podcasts for dummies, mind you. I'm a very beginner in this. It's like a table where you can change the volume for the headphones and microphone. it's, yeah, and it's the Rody brand. bought a set, it's like a complete set with the headphones and the microphones. And then I just use my Nikon D50.

Robert Tornabene (13:34.458)
Okay, so you've got some kind of control panel, okay.

Taylor Merriss (13:48.836)
5600 to record it because I thought that it might be beneficial to have visual and audio as well as just audio. And so on our YouTube account, you can watch it as well as listen to it. so, surprisingly, more people watch it on our YouTube than they do listening on our Spotify, which surprised me.

Robert Tornabene (14:09.422)
It just depends on the, you know, how it's getting exposed out there. I mean, it might change over time. And when I started out mining, it was strictly audio. And then as I went to video, I get more people from the video end of it now than I ever did before. It's just, it varies. so are you editing all of it or do you have somebody helping you with it?

Taylor Merriss (14:24.195)
Yeah.

Taylor Merriss (14:30.99)
So ironically, I don't do any editing. I do, I created the intro and the outro. I just add the titles of whoever the speaker is and then a couple of effects, transition effects. But other than that, I don't edit the video at all. It's like I said, transparency. And so what you see is what you get. If we mess up, we mess up. But yeah, there's no editing the information that's shared or the conversation that's had on the podcast.

Robert Tornabene (15:00.486)
Okay. And I get that for transparency. mean, it's always good for law enforcement agency to do that. It's just sometimes you get funny words or they get the ums and ahs and you know, or bodily functions happen. You know, you never know.

Taylor Merriss (15:10.966)
Yeah, thankfully, thankfully, Yeah, thankfully, I haven't had any of that occur just yet. But it does seem like initially, I've had people on the podcast that I'm very comfortable with. So having a conversation is very easy with them. Versus you know, having to pre plan out questions because you don't know as much about an officer but

I'm ignorant to some of the people on our department. There are a of new people on our agency that I don't know. I don't know their background. so whenever I come at it from that angle, just getting to know them as well as letting the community get to know them through my ignorance, I'm okay with that.

Robert Tornabene (15:49.874)
Well, that's awesome that you're asking those questions of people. And it's a great way to recognize different people in your department when you may not have had a chance for the public to see them before.

Taylor Merriss (16:01.1)
Yeah, well, and you know, it's sometimes kind of hard to get people to do something for Facebook or to do something for social media. But just having a conversation with somebody is a little bit easier rather than, you know, putting out a questionnaire with all their information on it or their picture or something along those lines.

Robert Tornabene (16:18.926)
I agree. mean, sometimes that back and forth is it's worth its wing gold. love when I do my interviews and I do a little bit of research on people, but I, there's always a, you know, a question that pops up in mind that I want to ask that's not on there. And, and it's always a fun experience learning something new.

Taylor Merriss (16:35.104)
It is very much so.

Robert Tornabene (16:37.796)
So you are the backup PIO, like you said before, what, what kind of training have you received for?

Taylor Merriss (16:45.676)
Yeah. So like I said, I've been in my position for almost four years and every year I've attended an IACP event. So International Chiefs of Police Conference, whether it be the PIO section or the full annual conference. I've been a speaker in multiple of those as well. And actually Evansville hosted the PIO section meeting last year. And for Evansville to be able to do that, you know, it's not Dallas or Boston or any of the big cities.

We were very grateful that people in the PIO section said yes to Evansville because it's a city you can quickly turn down because it's not as cool as some of the other cities. we learned a lot while they were here in Evansville. And I've been very fortunate. My current chief, you know, he worked back in the public information office and he understands how important public information is, as well as engaging in networking to be a communicator.

And so I've been able to go to a lot of those trainings with the IACP and meet a lot of people and network and build those relationships if I ever get stuck or if I need help with something. And so that's been extremely beneficial to me.

Robert Tornabene (17:55.396)
Outstanding. Glad to hear that the IACPPIO group has been a good support group. There's a lot of great people in there. I know so many of them in there. They are a wealth of knowledge and what a resource that group is.

Taylor Merriss (18:02.894)
Mm-hmm.

Taylor Merriss (18:11.213)
Yeah, absolutely.

Robert Tornabene (18:13.212)
So Taylor, I saw that you conducts a speaker series at Oakland University. What started this outreach?

Taylor Merriss (18:19.26)
Yeah. So that was something that I got asked to speak at about a couple of months ago, but it's a university that is roughly 45 minutes from here. And, know, we do everything we can to recruit. And so what better to recruit than at a university? And so really they just kind of reached out and said, Hey, would you be willing to come to our campus? We'd just like to learn more about what you do, what the police department does.

And so I kind of shared a different look at law enforcement. you know, cause a lot of people think, you know, SWAT and canine and whenever I went into more detail about how you can be a communicator and what that can get you. you know, I was a crisis negotiator on the department before I came up to the public information office and just talking about how communication is extremely important, whether you are a SWAT officer or if you're in public information. And so I really just went and spoke to,

roughly 200 students about law enforcement, specifically in Evansville, and that we're always hiring.

Robert Tornabene (19:22.994)
Okay, so was it a law enforcement related course or the contact to do or was it okay?

Taylor Merriss (19:29.078)
It was, yeah. So every Friday they have a featured guest and they had asked me if I would come and some of their law enforcement classes as well as business classes, it was mandatory for them to attend. But they had a lot of great questions afterwards and whenever you show a different side of policing, I think it intrigues people. When I show them writing on bowls or at the radio or, it makes people think you can do that as a police officer.

Just explaining that I'm extremely gifted. I have a chief that gives me leadway to kind of do whatever I want to do for the department. He trusts me enough that we are able to have that relationship and it's worked out very well for us. I know that's not at every agency and so super blessed to have that here in Evansville.

Robert Tornabene (20:16.434)
It's great to have a chief that's so supportive of the outreach that you guys are doing there. Taylor, you're obviously not, you're not doing it yourself. There's a lot of other people that are behind you that I'm sure you're doing. What I used to do is I used to just go out and say, Hey, what time can you show up at this event? That that's kind of the way I did a lot of it.

Taylor Merriss (20:24.718)
and

Taylor Merriss (20:35.284)
Yeah, I, you know, we get asked to be at a lot of events in the community and that's because we hardly ever turn it down. And sometimes it does get difficult because you're pulling at the same people that you know, would likely go to that event. And sometimes it's like, Hey, I'll just take one for the team and I'll go, I won't even ask anybody else to, you know, take them away from their families or something. And we really, really try to be at all the community events we can be at because the more exposure we can get being in those kinds of social settings.

the better. We have a great community in Evansville and whenever nationally people were seeing protests and riots, we really didn't have much of that here in Evansville. And I think a lot of that contributes to what we do in our community and the work that we do to kind of gain that mutual trust and respect.

Robert Tornabene (21:23.87)
That's outstanding. It's great to hear that you have such a supportive community and that you have the relationship with the community to to you know, keep the community understanding of the difficulty of our job, which a lot of communities, a lot of people within the community don't quite understand. So that's important. Taylor Zirk.

Taylor Merriss (21:38.361)
Yeah.

Taylor Merriss (21:44.593)
Yeah, we're right here.

Robert Tornabene (21:47.58)
Taylor, is there a question I should have asked and if so, how would you have answered it?

Taylor Merriss (21:52.42)
No, I mean, I think we covered quite a bit, but like I said, I'm very grateful for the leadership we have here at Evansville because I know some agencies where they have to, there's a lot of red tape to be able to get to where they want to be. And the leadership here trust us enough to be able to take things on our own. And when we need help, we ask for it. And just extremely grateful.

Robert Tornabene (22:19.986)
That's great that, like I said, anytime you have executive staff that understands and supports the community outreach programs that you guys have in a department, is, they are worth their weight in gold and they're very hard to come across as well. I've worked in multiple agencies in Illinois and I worked in Colorado and I've seen good chiefs and bad chiefs and the difficulty that sometimes it creates within not only the officers but

and the staff, but with the community itself. So that's great that you have such a great chief. I love to hear that stuff. All let's lighten it up. Rapid fire questions. These are easy. Texting or talking.

Taylor Merriss (22:50.102)
Yeah. OK. boy.

Okay, texting. Book.

Robert Tornabene (23:03.452)
Book or movie?

Coffee, tea, or any drink.

Taylor Merriss (23:09.262)
coffee.

Robert Tornabene (23:11.066)
Adult drink of choice.

Taylor Merriss (23:14.244)
Miller Lite with an olive in it.

Robert Tornabene (23:18.086)
with an olive in it, that's different, okay. What would be your superpower if you could have one?

Taylor Merriss (23:21.188)
you

to be invisible.

Robert Tornabene (23:26.232)
Ask permission or beg for forgiveness.

Taylor Merriss (23:28.856)
ask permission.

Robert Tornabene (23:30.694)
What place do you most want to travel to?

Taylor Merriss (23:33.764)
Probably grease.

Robert Tornabene (23:36.666)
What's your favorite way to relax after a long day?

Taylor Merriss (23:40.067)
Lay in my bed.

Robert Tornabene (23:42.425)
Who would you choose if you could have coffee with any historical figure?

Taylor Merriss (23:46.7)
Jesus.

Robert Tornabene (23:48.594)
I've said that before, that would be a great conversation, really would. Final thoughts, Taylor, what key points would you like our listeners to take from today's interview?

Taylor Merriss (23:57.444)
You know, like I emphasized there at the end, if there are any administrative personnel that are listening to this, make sure you have that trust and relationship with your public information office or unit, because that's extremely important. They're the communicators that are expressing and sharing information with your news outlets, your community. If you don't have trust in them, then why would your community have trust in them? And so I think that's extremely important.

Also, being involved in nonprofit work in your community. I've been able to establish a lot of relationships and really become more engaged in the community just by volunteering and helping out with nonprofit work. And lastly, don't be afraid to be vulnerable and be yourself because people want to see who you are as a person, not necessarily the uniform that you wear. And so even if that's kind of, you know, making a mockery of yourself every now and then, that's okay.

People will still take you professionally, but sometimes you have to show the real side of yourself rather than a front that can often be put on.

Robert Tornabene (25:02.918)
And I think that that is what most of us do in the PIO world and the community outreaches. We're about showing the human side of policing and what more human side than the officer showing that they're, they put their pants on just like everybody else.

Taylor Merriss (25:15.842)
Yes, absolutely.

Robert Tornabene (25:17.85)
As we wrap this up, is there a piece of wisdom or a motto that you live by?

Taylor Merriss (25:23.618)
I think this year for me, I've kind of had a quote as I navigate through a lot of different things in life, but to meet people where they're at, it's just as simple as that. know, meeting people, you can't expect everybody to be like you. You can't expect people to physically meet you where you're at. So in law enforcement, try and put yourselves in places where people will be versus making them come to you. In relationships, meet somebody where they're at, doesn't have to one side or the other.

And so really that's kind of been my philosophy on life this year.

Robert Tornabene (25:57.658)
It's a good one. I think with the politics that are going on across across the country, it is so difficult for people just to agree to disagree nowadays that sometimes we've got to go a little step farther just to have a context of a conversation.

Taylor Merriss (26:06.02)
Mm.

Taylor Merriss (26:12.994)
Yeah, I totally agree.

Robert Tornabene (26:15.612)
Taylor, how can people best reach you if they want to connect or follow up and learn more about the What's Your 20 Podcast?

Taylor Merriss (26:21.961)
Yeah, I would love for people to reach out if they have any questions or how to become more engaged in their community. They can send me an email at tmerriss.com. You can follow our Facebook page, evansvillepolice.com or Evansville Police Department. There's a lot of information that we share on there. If you send a message to our Facebook page, it'll come to me. And so, yeah.

I'd love to chat and make connections and learn more about other PIOs or administrative personnel or anybody that has questions.

Robert Tornabene (26:56.496)
And I will add all that into the show notes. Taylor, thank you for being on the show.

Taylor Merriss (26:59.128)
Perfect. Thank you so much for having me.

Robert Tornabene (27:04.438)
and we are out. Good job.

Taylor Merriss (27:06.973)
Thanks.