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A group of doctoral students from VCU is conducting a focus group to gather feedback on their capstone project about identifying barriers and analyzing federal law enforcement, social media, and recruitment efforts. The students introduced themselves, including Rena, who works for the FBI, Edgar, a lieutenant with the VCU Police Department, and Meg, who has a background in education. The group then asked the participants to introduce themselves and discussed guidelines for the session. They also asked about the importance of diversity in the workplace. The students shared that they had created social media sites for various federal law enforcement agencies and asked for feedback on their images and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. and advertised it, so I signed up there. Perfect. I signed up because one of our, I'm a student-athlete at VCU, and one of our student-athlete professional development coordinators, he sent it. It's off the flyer with the QR code. Oh, cool. Awesome. You guys all got here from different ways, so that's great. I guess we can go ahead and start. We don't want to re-value your time, and if someone trickles in late, that's fine. Okay, awesome. Well, thank you guys for coming. Our focus group is, we are actually doctoral students working on our capstone, so the title of our capstone project is Identifying Barriers, Analysis of Federal Law Enforcement, Social Media, and Recruitment Efforts. So our session tonight will last for about an hour, just based on your open discussion. We will be recording the session, but Rena will talk a little bit more about that in just a second. All right, so we're now going to introduce ourselves and our affiliation with this project. As Meg said, this is our capstone project. We're part of VCU's Educational Leadership Program, and we're currently in our final semester of the program. This is our accumulative capstone project. We spent several months researching this topic, and we're really excited to talk to you today and hear your feedback about this topic. We're now going to introduce ourselves. I'll go first. My name is Rena Desai. I work for the FBI Richmond field office. I've been with the FBI for a little over six years. I spent my first two years at headquarters in Washington, D.C., and then I decided I wanted to check out a field office, and so I got the opportunity to transfer about four years ago. And so this topic is especially interesting to me since I am working for the Bureau. So I am looking forward to hearing your honest feedback with what we show you tonight, and I look forward to hearing all your thoughts. Ed. Hello, my name is Edgar Greer. I'm a lieutenant with the VCU Police Department. I've been employed here since July 10, 2002, probably since before you guys were born. I entered this program because at my police department, I'm always looking to improve our diversity, equity, and making sure that this department is an inclusive work environment for the individuals that choose to work here. So I'm glad to be here, and welcome. Thanks, Ed. And my name is Meg Waldron-Sheriff. I am new to university academic advising, but prior to coming over to D.C. full-time, I was an adjunct before that. I taught high school, specifically English, for about 20 years. So while a lot of my people in my cohort went with educational captions, I chose this caption because I've seen the impact of DEI initiatives in public schools, so I was interested to see how this translated to federal law enforcement. All right, guys, so thank you. So what we'd like you to do is we'd like you to introduce yourselves. What we ask you to do is you can introduce yourself, your age, your major, and whatever you would like us to call you for the meeting itself. So we'll start with Belize Faith. My name is Faith. I'm 19 years old, and my current major is business accounting, and you can call me Faith. Okay, thank you. Patience? Hi, my name is Patience. I'm currently undeclared, but I'm pursuing computer science, and I'm 18, and I think that was everything. That was. Thank you. Aubrey is it? Hi, yes, it's Aubrey. My name is Aubrey Bryant. I'm a third-year student here at VCU. I'm 20 years old, and my current major is interdisciplinary with a focus in computer information systems. Okay, thank you. Sophie? Hi, my name is Sophie. You can call me Sophie. I'm a sophomore at VCU. I transferred from College of Charleston after my first semester, but I'm currently a double major, criminal justice and homeland security and emergency preparedness, hoping to go to law school, and I'm 20. I think I said that. I don't know. Okay, pleasure. Thank you. All right, well, thank you for introducing yourselves. While we'll use your names during this session, your identities will not be revealed when we publish our paper. They will remain confidential. But thank you, guys, for introducing yourselves. All right, so next we're going to discuss some guidelines for this group. We ask that you – there are three main guidelines. The first one is we ask that you respect others at all times. Only one person speaks at a time. This conversation will be recorded, as Meg mentioned. Also, you may not be able to answer every question, and that's okay. I'll be the mediator, and I'll ensure everyone is heard before moving on. Again, this discussion is confidential, and as we report our findings, none of the names will be presented in our findings, so you will remain anonymous. And finally, just remember we may not agree with and have all the same ideas during the session, but, you know, we'll recognize that all of us are allowed to express our opinions. And again, just to keep in mind, this is a discussion and not a debate. Any questions up to this point? All right, great. Okay. Let's talk about our purpose. The purpose of this focus group is to capture your thoughts, opinions, and reactions to our data collection of federal law enforcement social media. It is also a goal to observe your thoughts on recruitment to these agencies based upon social media presence. Meg, do you want to show the slides? Oh, sorry. It's all right. Oh, can you enable screen sharing for me? All right, so help me. How do I do that again? In the middle, where it says screen, it says screen share. Click on other participants can share. Oh, okay. There you go. All right. They're all secretly laughing at old people doing technology. I'll tell you, I've been working before they were born. All right, so I wanted to talk to you all about how we capture the data. So we've created social media sites of several federal law enforcement agencies during the months of August and September 2023. And we primarily looked at three platforms, the first one being Facebook, the second one Twitter, which is now known as X, and Instagram. We selected two images based off of engagement. So one of the images was based off of most likes during those two months. And the picture that is the second image you'll see or one of the two images you'll see is representative of the typical image that was posted on that specific law enforcement website or not website but social media site. The photos we'll show you are a sample of Federal Bureau of Investigation's Richmond, Federal Bureau of Investigation's headquarters, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Board of Prisons, and United States Marshal Service social media sites. While some of these agencies had video, for the purpose of this project, we only looked at photographs. All right, so prior to showing you our slides, we would like to ask you our first question, which is, do you think diversity is important in the workplace? Why or why not? And just keep in mind there's no wrong answer. Please talk freely because your feedback is very valuable to our research. You also do not need to raise your hand. There's only four of you, so just feel free to jump in. If someone else talks, you can just kind of wait until they finish. So do you think diversity is important in the workplace? I definitely think it's important because I think when people have different experiences, they can bring different ideas into whatever project they're working on. Thank you. I think I heard somebody else. I would agree with that. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think diversity in the workplace, yeah, I agree with you. I think diversity is really important, especially in workplaces where there's a lot of diversity. I think diversity is really important, especially in the workplace where there's a lot of diversity. I think diversity is really important, especially in the workplace where there's a lot of diversity. I think diversity is really important, especially in the workplace where there's a lot of diversity. I think diversity is really important, especially in the workplace where there's a lot of diversity. I think diversity is really important, especially in the workplace where there's a lot of diversity. I think diversity is really important, especially in workplaces that, you know, serve the public or are directly related to the public. I mean, we live in such a diverse world, such a diverse nation that we need to make sure that people are represented in the places that are serving them. Thank you. I think that diversity is an important place. It's an important norm. It's important because, I mean, we need representation of different groups, and many groups have lots of talents and gifts to share. Thank you. All right. So next, before we show images, we ask, do you remember viewing the website of a federal law enforcement agency? Does anyone have any feedback to that? Do you remember viewing any website of a federal law enforcement agency, or have you ever done that? I have in my Insured Criminal Justice class. I've seen it. I don't think there's anything too memorable about them. They're usually pretty professional, like any other, you know, .gov, .org site. All right. I'm going to read up the rest of these questions. This is a group conversation. The next question would be, what about their social media sites? What are your thoughts when viewing images from a federal law enforcement agency's social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X? And did you notice their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion on their sites? If so, what were your impressions? I have viewed a federal law enforcement agency website. I wouldn't say, yeah, like Sophie said, I wouldn't say there's anything memorable. I don't necessarily remember any pictures specifically, but I do remember it being laid out pretty well. And in terms of social media, I don't think I've ever specifically gone out of my way to review or like look over a federal law enforcement agency's social media platform. I might have come across one, but I don't necessarily see the benefit of necessarily going to their social media. I see myself probably navigating their website more than just social media. Okay. That's good feedback. That's good to know. Anybody else? I think I'm kind of the same way. When I go on social media, it's more for like entertainment, relaxing, funny. I never really like intentionally go to federal law enforcement social media or does it come up on my feed just because of the stuff that I do interact with. It's kind of the opposite of that. Okay. Did you even know that they have social media sites? No. I'm learning about that right now. That's good to know. All right. All right. So next, we're going to explain the platform where you will discuss the pictures that we're going to show you. It's known as the Notice and Wonder Protocol. Noticings are actual observations of what you see in a post. For example, I see three men winning an award, or I see them wearing suits, or I see a woman smiling, whereas the Wondering Protocol is inferential in nature. For example, I wonder if this is a stock photo, or I wonder if this woman is in a top managerial position. Next, I'm going to show you an example of what we mean by the Notice and Wonder Protocol. All right. So these two images were images that we scraped, but they're not part of the set we'll be showing you. But, for example, the one on the left for the Noticing Protocol, I might say something like I notice two agents. One appears to be male, Caucasian. The female appears to be a woman of color. It appears that they are at some type of community event because there is a food truck in the background. There's somebody pushing a stroller, and it looks like there are kids there. The tent looks like it might say, like, investigation, but that's something I kind of wonder. So in terms of wondering, I wonder if this is something the FBI does often where they go out to the public and kind of let people know about what they do. It looks like I wonder why these people are laughing, like if you tell her a joke, right? So it looks pretty laid back in nature. In terms of the photograph on the right, I notice that there are three men. They all appear to be Caucasian. Two are dressed in more formal suits. There appears to be some collegiality between them. They might know each other based on the fact that they're smiling. I notice that the police officer is carrying a gun. I notice that there's a hat on the table. I wonder if it's his. I wonder if they know each other, or maybe the police officer just solved some kind of case or won an award. And I notice medals and flags and things like that in the background. Okay, so again, noticings are just direct things you notice about either the people or the things that are happening in the photo and wondering if there are things that the picture makes you think about or that you're curious about. All right, so we're going to begin to show you the images taken from federal law enforcement agencies' social media pages. You'll see each slide for just approximately 10 or 15 seconds, and then we'll spend a few minutes with the Notice and Wonder Protocol for each set of slides. All right, Ed, you're up. All right, so the first set of pictures that we're going to show you is from the FBI headquarters pulled off of their social media. So let's take a few seconds before let's look at the photo, and then we'll talk about notice and wondering. Okay. So what we'll do is we'll start with anyone that would like to go first. First, what do you notice and what do you wonder about this particular picture? I'll go. I noticed, I think I noticed that there are four individuals that are all in a tube. They're standing in front of three flags, and I noticed that the insignia on what appears, I'm not sure if they're flags or banners, but it says City of New York Police Commissioner. And a couple wonders is I'm wondering if this was some sort of meeting that these four individuals were at. I'm wondering if this is actually taking place in New York City. And I'm also wondering where exactly they were at in this photo. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Well, I noticed that there are four men standing there, and I noticed there are three flags, and something about the men is that two of them appear to be Caucasian, one of them appear to be black, and I'm not sure about the third man. He appears to be Hispanic. And something I wonder is that what event was this picture taken at and what was the event about? Okay. Thank you. All right. Let's go to the next slide. Okay. So how about this picture? This is from the FBI headquarters. And whenever anyone's ready, we get to talk about what you notice and what you wonder about this particular picture. I noticed that there's a very cute dog. My wonder is if this is like a – what do they call it? Like the police dogs? Or if this is just like a random dog wearing a cute little outfit. That's all I can say. Gotcha. Are you talking about those canines, the bomb-sniffing dogs? Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. The next set of photos that we will look at are from FBI Richmond headquarters. So I'll give you a moment to look at this one, what you notice and what you wonder. All right. Anyone can jump in who wants to take a shot at it. First thing I noticed is that it looks heavily Caucasian, extremely. Yeah. Thank you. One of the things I noticed is the little cutout board. It says future special agent and it appears to be like a mock feed of what an Instagram timeline kind of looks like. So that kind of brings me to wonder if this is some sort of like recruitment event that the Richmond headquarters does. Okay. Thank you. To kind of bring those two things that they said together, I was wondering if like who would want to come to this recruitment, you know what I mean, if, you know, they're not represented because there's not a whole lot of diversity there. Okay. The other thing I wonder is that could this picture have been taken at a job fair or a career fair? Okay. Go to the next one. This is from FBI Richmond headquarters as well. I don't know if you all are ready. Notice things and wonderings. I noticed that there's a big helicopter and some people work for the FBI in Richmond and I'm wondering if they're offering people to ride in the helicopter. One thing I noticed is that the individuals in the picture appear to be or I'm wondering if they're people who attended the event. One thing I did notice is that it's a bit more diverse than the last photo. Okay. Thank you. All right. Now Lieutenant Greer will talk to you about photos from our next federal law enforcement agency, which is the Drug Enforcement Agency. All right. So we'll take a few minutes. DEA, and we'll talk about what you notice and wonder about this particular photo. Not a few minutes, a few seconds, if we can make that happen. I'm wondering if the person that's being portrayed has an absolute overdosing on fentanyl and that's why they're bringing a witness. Okay. Thank you for that one. I'm kind of wondering if they got the family's permission to, like, make him the face of fentanyl, you know what I mean? Right. That could be, I mean, after, like, a loved one's death, and, like, to have them published like that, that could be unsettling to some. Okay. Thank you. Let's look at the next photo. All right. This is again from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Whatever you guys would like to, whoever wants to start, we'll talk about noticings and wonderings. It looks like he's doing a push-up, I think, or maybe a plank. I'm not really sure. And then I think I noticed binders behind him, so it's strange. I don't know. He's down in some manner. All right. Okay. Anyone else? All right. We'll go ahead and move to the next one. These will be two images from alcohol-staffed firearms. I'll give you a second to look at this one. All right. Any noticings or wonderings on this image? I noticed that this appears to be in Maui, so I'm assuming this is Maui, Hawaii. I did also notice that there's, like, two different uniform groups in this one setting. I'm also beginning to wonder, like, what designates the different uniforms and how it relates to ATS. Thank you. The first thing I noticed is that it's a man's glove. Besides, there's one woman in the picture who doesn't really seem to be in uniform or anything. It's all men. Okay. All right. We'll go ahead and go to the second one. This one is also from ATS. All right. Any noticings or wonderings of this one? All right. We'll go to our next agency with Lieutenant Greer, and that is border prisons. All right, guys. Here's a picture from the border prisons. Let's take a few seconds, and then we'll talk about notices and wonderings. And if anyone has any, you guys can go ahead and start whenever you have it. So I'm wondering, like, what their outfits mean. To me, like, it comes off as, like, a nursing outfit, but I'm also, like, that could be, like, a jumpsuit. I don't know. Okay. Good. Good. Okay. Anybody else on this one notice things or wonderings? I also noticed kind of the same thing. I noticed a stethoscope on the table and a couple other things. So it kind of makes me wonder if this is some sort of, like, nursing opportunity that's related to, like, border prisons. I think that's the RN on their name plate. Yeah. So, yeah, it kind of makes me wonder, like, is this some sort of nursing, like, recruitment or effort? Thank you. I'm going to say border prisons, too. Thank you for noting that it's border prisons. All right. The next one. Okay. I mean, I noticed there's lots of people. I don't know if they're, like, 40 or 50. And it seems diverse from what I'm seeing. Okay. Anyone else? All right. Thank you. All right. This is our last federal agency. So this is the United States Marshals Service. So anything you notice or wonder about this photograph? One thing I wonder is what exactly is going on in the photo. I've noticed that someone seems to be dressed in, like, medical attire to the left, the individual to the far left. So it kind of makes me wonder what exactly, what process is being taken place right now. Thank you. Yeah, I'm also wondering if the person in the middle is actually, like, a police U.S. marshal or just a stranger. All right. We'll go ahead and move to the second one. This is also from the United States Marshals Service. I noticed, like, everybody's in uniform except for one person. So I'm wondering if she's, like, maybe an instructor or, like, maybe someone's relative. Okay. To add to her, I'm also wondering if she could be, like, a leader, a head of something, or a secretary. All right. So we also have a couple of images that we're going to show you from these sites that represent their awareness months, like, Black History Month or Latinx Heritage Month. So we're going to show you these. Anything you've noticed or noticed, I'm wondering protocol by this point. So anything you notice or wonder about these will be helpful to us as well. So this is the first one from Alcoholics Echo and Firearms for Women's History Month. Any thoughts on this one? I'd say this looks pretty fitting for Women's History Month, considering that, I guess, the caption to the title is HFO makes her story. So she appears to be the forefront of the flyer or the photo. I could see this being, I guess, somewhat appropriate for Women's History Month. Okay. Anything else on that one? All right. This is from FBI Headquarters, again, celebrating Women's History Month. Any thoughts on this one? Anything that catches your eye? I noticed there's somebody covered up, and I think it's a man. If I'm not mistaken, I thought that was kind of interesting. I kind of like it, though. Does the part in quotes make sense to you all? I'm just curious. I don't know if I like that. Like it's almost like, I don't know, just kind of insinuating like being a woman is a deficit. I'm not sure. It took me a couple reads, though. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I think, Sophie, what they were going for is that women weren't always allowed in the FBI. So I think that's interesting to see, maybe if you didn't know the history of women in the agency, how like without context it might be hard to understand the tagline. I could be wrong. I don't know if that's what they were going for. I'm not sure. But, Sophie, your feedback is really valuable. So that's interesting. That's good to know that, you know, depending on what a person may or may not know about FBI history, this quote could, you know, sound a little off. Okay. And these two are celebrating Black History Month. This one is from the United States Marshals Service. That's it? That's all we got? Elaborate. Tell us what you mean, Sophie. Is that all? Is this a picture of an African-American individual? Well, there are others, but for this particular post, this was one of the posts. We're leaving the captions off for a variety of reasons, but this is one of the pictures, yes. Okay. I like it if it's the same vibe as like celebrating her story, you know, and celebrating his story. I like it. Okay. Any other thoughts on this one? I don't really have much to go off of, I guess, other than a black and white photo. I could see it appears to be a colored male, but other than that, I don't. There's nothing indicating really who he is or if he does have a story or not. So I guess that's kind of a downside. Okay. All right. This is one from the DEA for Black History Month. Any noticings or wonderings on this one? I like it. I think it's cool. My grandfather is actually a man of color, and he was in the DEA agent. He passed away a couple years ago. So I have some, like, super, like, badass photos of him, and I think those could have been used, too. But I think this is a pretty cool picture, too. I like that. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing. All right. I mean, I think we're good. Let's move to the last part. All right. So we're now all done showing you all the images based off the data that we scraped. We're now going to move on to some questions into an open discussion. We will ask questions, but we will not be participating in the discussion. We're just going to observe your comments. Again, there are no bad comments. Please feel free, you know, talking openly and honestly like you have been. Are there any questions up to this point? As a reminder, you know, you may not be able to answer all the questions, but we ask you to be respectful of other people's opinions. Again, just keep in mind this is a discussion and not a debate. All right. So I guess I'll start first. Based off what you have seen on TV, in the movies, or by personal experience, is there one agency you prefer over the other, and for what reason? I'll go first. Based off what I've seen on TV and, like, through, like, media, I definitely will say I think FBI. I think it's definitely probably my preference in terms of any agency I would rather work for. That's kind of just like the premier government agency you kind of see displayed through, you know, different forms of media. And do I think there are any challenges in applying to a federal law enforcement agency? I do. I don't think so necessarily. I think in terms of, like, for, like, FBI, which is kind of like, I guess, the premier agency for the government, I've heard that they're a little bit more, like, tedious or not rigorous in terms of, like, their application process. So I do, in my head, I kind of think that there might be more challenges in terms of applying for that in terms of the rest, when, like, compared to applying for the rest. And me personally, I do think I would be more inclined to apply if there were a law enforcement photo agency, if there were diverse pictures, considering that I'm a black male. So if I see more individuals like me kind of displayed throughout the, like, application process or anything in terms of that used to, like, kind of recruit me or bring me to want to apply, I definitely will be more inclined. Thank you for that. If I see individuals who, like, represent me. Got you. Thank you very much for that. Aubrey, can I ask you one follow-up question? You said that you've heard it's a tedious process. Where did you hear that? Like, in class? Or do you have friends that applied? Or where do you think you, like, received that information? So I have, since I've kind of, like, built this interest over a couple years, I've talked to people who have served, not served, but were employed by different agencies. I'm looking to specifically do, like, federal law enforcement officer work. I've talked to different people who have held those positions. And then they definitely said, like, in terms of what, like, FBI hires at, I know that they're kind of like their grade scale or their grade schedule that what they hire at is definitely a little bit higher than some other agencies. So they definitely will bring in certain individuals who don't have the requirements to meet a certain schedule. So already hearing that kind of almost, not necessarily like a turnoff, but kind of set in my head that it might be a little bit harder to get there for FBI rather than, like, maybe HSI or, like, DEA or ACS. Okay. Any other agency like that. So, yeah. All right. Thank you. No problem. I agree. I think FBI is, like, most portrayed in the media and, you know, kind of glorified in a way. I personally, just because my grandfather, like, I've always been super interested in the DEA agency, although I've witnessed, like, firsthand, I guess, kind of, like, alcoholism in that agency. So I don't really know how I feel about that. I'm not aware of any challenges in applying to federal law enforcement agencies. Like, obviously, being a woman, I feel like it's always going to be a little bit more difficult, especially being, like, really small. I'm a tiny foot. Other than that, I don't know any huge challenges. Like Aubrey said, I do know that it's a pretty, like, lengthy process and there's a lot of requirements that have to be met first. Thank you. Anybody else on me? Well, based on what I've seen on movies, I think I prefer FBI because they make themselves well-known and probably pull people towards them. And they're committed to solving crime. They're committed to finding out people who are, like, you know, suspects and all that. I do think that there could be a challenge in applying to federal law enforcement because, you know, like Aubrey and like Sophie said, there could be lots of requirements, like lots of certifications and lots of tests that you need to pass. And the third question, I would if there were lots of diverse images, but then you got to think about it. I mean, like, job companies can portray diverse images, but then if they're not treating people the same way within the work site, then there's no point in applying. Could you explain that just a little bit more? Like, if you could clarify just a little bit, because I'm not understanding completely, if you don't mind. Well, I just – can you give me some time? I think we lost your audio, Susie. You're back. Was that Susie or Faith talking? Faith. Oh, Faith, sorry. I think we lost your audio. I think it cut out. I mean, I'm saying that, yes, if there is lots of diversity, if the media does portray diverse images, then, yes, I would be more likely to apply. But then if I do apply and get that job, then I want to be sure that I'm being treated fairly. Like, as a black woman, I want to be sure that I'm not being profiled, not being exposed to microaggression. Basically, I think that's a request from every person of color and every woman. All right. Okay. Thank you. I want to add to that, like, one more thing. I don't want to just see diverse images on social media. I want to see diversity in the agency. I want to look, like, be able to, like, you know, like Faith was saying, in the workplace. Like, I want, like, diversity around me. I want there to be, like, fair representation, not just on social media, but, like, actually in the workplace. So I think that's really important. Because I've seen, I'm also a student athlete at VCU, and I've seen, like, the media team or coaches pull aside, like, athletes of color just to have them, like, in the videos. And I dislike that personally. Like, I think that there should be diversity. You shouldn't have to, you know, go out of your way to grab, like, a person of color or a woman or et cetera, et cetera. Okay. I also want to add on to that real quick. And I don't like the diversity of, like, diverse images on the social media pages. Not only, like, necessarily, like, different people of color and people who aren't of color, but I would also want to see diversity in terms of, like, age-wise. I would also like to see younger individuals. I think I would definitely be more inclined to apply if I've seen people who are around my age range. Because I also like to tie that back into, like, the challenges with, like, Federal Law Enforcement Agency. I feel like if I kind of lack the experience, I'm kind of young, I feel like that could be a challenge in terms of applying to Federal Law Enforcement Agency. So if I see that, I feel like I'd probably be more inclined to apply. Because I feel more accepted as someone who wants to start out pretty young coming out of college in Federal Law Enforcement. So, yes. I also wanted to respond. I definitely agree with everyone else. FBI is, like, the biggest one with, like, the FBI open up meme. That's, like, the only reason why I know what that is. And then for challenges, I don't know any, like, specific ones. But obviously, like, Faith and Sophie were saying, just as, like, a woman of color, like, that just comes with anything you do pretty much. And then I heard about, like, clearance. Like, my dad was contracted for the government and he had to do a whole thing. And I'm sure that's even worse when you're in the actual agency. And then for the last one, I definitely would be more likely to apply. Because when you see people that look like you, you're just more inclined to go that way. But it should definitely come off natural. Because when it's just, like, like, that takes – well, I don't know if I can use that example. But when we showed the picture of, like, the black guy for the Black History Month thing, I was like, if I ever saw that on my phone, I don't think that's so random. I don't know. But if it comes off, like, naturally, like, everyone feels included, that's what I like. Okay. Thank you. All right. We'll go to the next. These are the last set of questions. You guys have given us great feedback. So, Rena, I don't know if you want to go ahead and read these out. Oh, I guess we had an hour reading. I'm sorry. All right. So the first one. Were any of the photos you saw today surprising to you? If so, in what way? So I know you mentioned the handlebar mustache one. So besides that one, were any of the photos surprising to you in any way? All right. Can I ask a question? Yeah. What does ATF stand for again? Alcohol, tobacco, and firearm. Oh, okay. When the dog photo for the ATF, I was very confused. That's why I didn't say anything. So confused is because it felt, like, random, or the other one had the insignia on it, like you guys mentioned how it had the collar. So what do you think was random about it? Or what surprised you with that one? Yeah, because the other one had, like, the insignia that I was talking about, but that one was just, like, a dog. Okay. Laying on the ground, right? Yeah. They're an application. All right. One that kind of, like, threw me off just a little bit was, like, the FBI photo with the helicopter. To my knowledge, I'm not – of course I don't know exactly, like, what their day-to-day operations are, but, like, I've never seen any, like, need for, like, a helicopter like that. I was a little bit confused, like, what is their connection to, like, needing, like, a vehicle like that. But that kind of surprised me because I thought that was more, like, used for, like, I don't know, maybe military operations or something like that rather than, like, FBI. Okay. Yeah. And following up on that, what do you think of the quality of the – that were presented? Did you have any thoughts on that? Because I noticed in some of the photos you had no responses. So was it because of the content or what were your thoughts on the quality of the photos? I actually really liked the quality. It came off, like, natural. Okay. All right. Ed, you want to do the next one? All right. So were you drawn to a particular agency over another one based on the photo samples? If yes, for what reason? All right. We'll go to the next one. If given the opportunity, what recommendations would you provide federal law enforcement agencies when developing content for their social media pages? One recommendation I would give is I would say try to include content that encapsulates different aspects of the job. So not necessarily, like, field work, but maybe, like, desk work or anything, like, from being inside the building to all the way to, like, outside the building, like, making a rest or anything like that. Because, you know, not – like, different people want to – are going to want to, like, join for different reasons. Okay. So you want to just kind of display that diversity that the – like, that agency can provide in terms of, like, what the job encapsulates or anything like that. Okay. Like, in terms of job descriptions and types of things like that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So just to make sure. So you're talking about job diversity and you don't want to see necessarily every picture of an agent. But perhaps – I know the FBI has professional staff jobs, like accounting – accountants and stuff like that. Okay. All right. I follow. Yeah. I like the pictures that have words in it, like, the woman's history month one that was, like, tell her story. I feel like – I was, like, oh, I want to know her story. But, like, I got to bring up Handlebar Armistice guy again. But, like, that one, I was, like – I mean, I'm assuming there's, like, a caption on Instagram that they had, right? Yeah. So we probably have – right. So Lieutenant Greer will give you his background. The funny thing is, Kacen, we've shown other groups, and some other groups are, like, oh, they love this mustache, so I'm cracking up with your message. I love his mustache, too. I love his mustache, too. For real. Great mustache. I'm just confused. That's good. So I would – I feel like – can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I feel like maybe you should make, like – maybe the social media page should make, like, a whole thread of who the guy is so we have an idea of what we're celebrating and who we're talking about. Okay. All right. And then – Just to answer that question, he's – that gentleman, he's the first African-American agent for the U.S. Marshals Service. Right. His name is Bass Reeves. And that's what the photo is about. It's Black History Month. So they were focusing on him, you know, just showing who he was and giving some ideas to, you know, how – you know, when the first black U.S. Marshal was hired and, you know, what they were doing. You know, just so you know, he made over 3,000 arrests. He was born in, I believe, 1910-ish, around that area. And he's from Arkansas, but he was the first black U.S. Marshal. One more thing. You guys wouldn't have known that if we took the words away from the post itself. One more thing about just, like, social media content. I agree. I like, like, the content that was, like, her story because it, like, just grabs the attention of whoever's reading it. But also I really liked the post just involving, like, community involvement or just, like, community outreach. I think that's really beneficial for federal law enforcement agencies because it's, like, oftentimes I feel like, like, as a citizen, like, they seem so far away or just, you know, not actually part of the community. Community involvement is just important. All right. And then the last one we have for you is, do you see a connection between social media presence and recruiting potential job applicants? Any thoughts on that? Okay, yeah. I think there might be, like, a slight connection between the two. So from what I've seen in my experience, and I'm pretty sure I think along with everyone else who said, I think FBI might have the biggest presence in terms of being on social media. And I do think that they probably, in my head, they probably would see the highest numbers in terms of, like, recruiting or in terms of, like, applications. So I do think there might be, like, a slight connection there. And then if other agencies don't necessarily see the same numbers, it might be because, like, they're not necessarily – they might not have the same presence on social media as agencies like FBI. I also think there is a connection. I usually don't go to, like, social media to find the jobs, but I feel like on apps like TikTok – and I know there was no videos in this because y'all said y'all couldn't put videos – but on places like that, I could definitely see me being like, oh, I didn't think that was a job. But, like, Instagram and stuff, I don't really look for jobs on there. So if you don't mind me asking, where do – where would a person, you know, a college-age student, where do y'all usually go to find jobs in general? Me, like, job fairs. For, like, a random part-time job, probably, like, Indeed or Glassdoor. But also there's, like, word of mouth, too. Mm-hmm. That's good to know. Specifically, probably for, like, a social media platform, it would definitely probably be LinkedIn for jobs, especially, like, government-based jobs. Yeah, or, like, job sites like Indeed. Sophie, in the beginning of our focus group, you talked a little bit how you think of social media more in, like, entertainment – like, as is entertainment. So what about now that we've showed you some of these images? Do you still think of social media more in that light, like, entertainment? And then if you're looking for a job, you're more going to the website? I'm just curious of your thoughts on that. It's hard for me to take certain things on social media serious. I'd say I'd more gravitate towards, like, websites or, you know, other platforms for job applications. I'm not saying that social media is, like, exclusive to entertainment. I'm fully aware that it's, you know, a lot bigger than that, and there's a lot of opportunity on social media. But for me, there's just – like, if I were to see on my Instagram, like, an FBI job posting, I'd be like, this is not real, you know? Oh, okay. I'd be like, this is not – I wouldn't take it serious, so. Okay. I mean, like, let's say the actual FBI – I mean, they have an actual account, and, yes, they do. They make a post saying that they're actively hiring. Then, yeah, I mean, it would connect into recruiting a potential job applicant. Okay. All right. All right. Any other final thoughts? If not, then this concludes our focus group discussion. Again, we really, truly appreciate your time. You've given us so much valuable feedback. What we're going to do is send you a – we're going to email you the transcript of our discussion prior to our paper being published, which will be May of this year, so please be on the lookout for that. If you have any questions after this, if you think of a question, or if you have questions right now, you know, please stay on, and we will address them at the end of our meeting. You're also welcome to reach out to Lieutenant Greer at his email address. And then when it comes to the gift card, we got approved to provide gift cards. It's through the School of Education, and you will receive something in a couple of weeks. So feel free to reach out if you have any questions, and you have Lieutenant Greer's email address. Yeah, so just to follow up on the gift card thing, there's, like, a little tiny bit of a process. We're hoping to get it to you guys in, like, the next week. So I'll email you and figure out a time where I can meet you on campus to give it to you. If not – otherwise, we won't be able to send it to you electronically. They're still giving us the details. But I'll be in touch with you in the next couple of days to pass that along to you. We really do appreciate your time. Any questions for us? Yeah, again, I think – Recording stopped. I think I could confidently say the three of us really enjoyed your feedback. This was great. Yeah, lots of good information.
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