DANBURY — Officials are welcoming a former local broadcast news reporter as the city’s first-ever public relations specialist tasked with coordinating and supporting public safety communications across multiple departments.
Married last month, Erin Henry went by Erin Edwards during her two years as a reporter working for WFSB.
Published Sept. 6, her last story for the Connecticut broadcaster reported on a police investigation into a stranger who approached a group of middle school students in Bristol.
The Morris native earned a communication and media studies degree from Fisher College in Boston in 2014 before starting her career as reporter, most recently covering stories in Charlotte, NC, and Myrtle Beach, SC, before returning to her home state to join WFSB two years ago.
Now, with her new role in Danbury leaving her “on the other side” of the reporting equation, Henry said she is excited for the shift to municipal government as a way to use her expertise to make an impact on a single community.
The public relations specialist position she started last week will see the former reporter working with the city’s police and fire departments, health department, and emergency services department.
“I am really excited to get started and bridge any kind of gap between the emergency management departments and the community and kind of work to get any information in a timely manner,” Henry said Monday.
In a statement, Mayor Dean Esposito said his administration was excited for Henry to take on the role, which he noted is “consistent with my plan to develop a rapid and responsive communications platform for our city.”
“Erin has the right experience and background to work collaboratively with emergency services to share timely and accurate information with out constituents, strategic partners, and the media,” Esposito said in a statement. “I look forward to her service to the City of Danbury.”
In comments Esposito made in March to CT Insider after it took nearly 24 hours for police to confirm a shooting in the parking lot of a Chili’s on Newtown Road, Esposito noted he was already considering the inclusion of a later approved allocation to fund the public relations position filled by Henry this week.
Chief Patrick Ridenhour welcomed Henry’s hiring for a position he said will “coordinate our public information and develop content to distribute to the media and our community.”
“We are very excited to have Erin on board to coordinate our public information and develop content to distribute to the media and our community,” Ridenhour wrote in an email.
The chief noted Henry will split time between the other departments but said, “on the policing side, she will help us better highlight all of our services and accomplishments and get information out in a more timely manner.”
Danbury Fire Chief Richard Thode said he hoped the position will help address the sometimes “silo-ed” nature of Danbury’s emergency communications structure, where individual departments are largely left to perform their own public communication duties, an arrangement that proved particularly challenging when it came to the city’s emergency response to the pandemic.
“During the pandemic, we saw a great need to relay accurate information from all of our emergency departments to the public in a timely manner,” Thode said
“Erin will provide important updates quickly to the communities we serve,” he added.
The fire chief reported department personnel already assigned to perform public information responsibilities will retain their titles but their duties would likely shift as they worked in coordination with Henry, who he hoped could also help provide more general public messaging around the role of the department and what services they provide.
Ridenhour said no decision has been made over whether or not Detective Capt. Mark Williams will continue performing his public information officer function for the police, but the chief asked that reporters include Henry on future communications made to the department so they could then determine who should respond.
“In most cases I imagine it will be Erin,” Ridenhour added. “But I do recognize there are times when the public needs to hear directly from the chief or a high-ranking officer and we will handle those situations accordingly.”