Butte County residents looking for a new podcast don’t have to look further than their sheriff’s office. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea launched his own podcast last month.
It’s called “The Sheriff’s Mic: Cleared to Talk with Sheriff Honea,” and focuses on public safety, criminal justice and local issues.
Honea said he first got interested in podcasts a few years ago when he began listening to “true crime” shows, which is a genre that explores criminal cases.
He doesn’t listen to true crime much anymore, he said, but he’s still a fan of podcasts, listening to one or two a day.
“It's easy for me to consume the information, because I can do it while I'm doing other things like driving or working out or something along those lines,” Honea said.
“… It gives us an opportunity to explore topics that maybe are a little more challenging to define in short sound bites.”- Kory Honea, Butte County Sheriff
Some of his favorites include locally produced podcasts like Action News Now’s Straight From The Source and Community Builders - A Chico Podcast. He also enjoys The Economics of Everyday Things and podcasts from the Wall Street Journal.
The sheriff’s office communicates with the public in many ways, including through social media and traditional media, but Honea thinks his new podcast is a good addition to the rotation.
“Podcasting gives us an opportunity to go a little more in depth into topics that we can't do [in] other ways,” he said. “It gives us an opportunity to explore topics that maybe are a little more challenging to define in short sound bites.”
Podcasting also gives his office more control over what information is presented and how it is presented to the public, Honea said. The medium’s free format can also make information more conversational and accessible to different audiences.
“One of the challenges of being a law enforcement leader and a government official is recognizing that you have to communicate across multiple platforms, because not everybody is tuned in the same to the same platform,” Honea said.
What listeners can expect
Honea is doing the interviewing and each episode will feature a guest. So far, it’s featured former Sacramento sheriff and broadcaster John McGinness, who talked about how law enforcement engages with the public.
It’s also brought on Alex Johnston, the co-owner of Epic Recruitment, a police officer recruitment agency, to talk about the challenges law enforcement is facing with recruiting. In Butte County, Honea said there are currently 68 vacancies.
Honea said the podcast can also help inform people about the intersecting collaboration between the sheriff’s office and other county departments.
“One of the challenges of being a law enforcement leader and a government official is recognizing that you have to communicate across multiple platforms, because not everybody is tuned in the same to the same platform.”- Kory Honea, Butte County Sheriff
He plans to have future episodes with Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey where they’ll analyze the Bidwell Mansion arson case and the Feather River Adventist school shooting. He also said the county’s Behavioral Health Director, Scott Kennelly, will make an appearance.
“People may not think that there is a significant interaction between the sheriff's office and behavioral health, but there is so it happens on a daily basis, and it's important for people to understand what that interaction is,” Honea said.
Internal staff at the sheriff's office plans each episode and coordinates with guests, but Metric Studios, a local production company, is contracted out to record and edit the episodes.
The podcast is still getting started with two episodes released. Future episodes will be released twice a month.
“I'm still at the stage of the process where I am learning how to do this and learning how to make these, and so I guess my initial goal is just to get good enough that people actually want to listen to this,” Honea said.
