Captain Thomas Reyes
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue
Tom Reyes is a badged Captain and the Public Information Officer for Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. Captain Reyes started in the Fire service in 2000 in the Florida Keys before coming to PBCFR. He spent 9 years as a Flight Nurse on the TraumaHawk helicopter before promoting to Lieutenant and Captain. The PIO position opened up in 2022 and Tom felt this was an opportunity to expand the role of the Public Information Office. Since starting as PIO, Captain Reyes has worked on increasing the timeliness and efficiency of the internal and external communications for PBCFR. He has been deployed as a PIO to Suwannee County in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, and is the Florida Region 7 coordinator for any PIO’s that may be emergently deployed to or from Palm Beach, Broward, Maini Dade and Monroe Counties.
10:00 - 10:50 AM Breakout Session
Tuesday 17th Sept
Using the FEMA 8-Step Communication Model in building a Social Media Presence
Captain Reyes will focus on PBCFR’s social media and how it integrates with the 8-step communication model. This will address the different audiences when using social media. It’s not just the public but also your people, the political players, and counterparts. How can you use a three-tiered approach to Public Information and essentially market your department by engaging with your entire online community? We will discuss what works, what could be an unintentional pitfall, and how to grow your market.