Public officials love getting into awkward situations (8)
I believe the answer is:
coroners
'public officials' is the definition.
(coroner is a type of public official)
'love getting into awkward situations' is the wordplay.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'getting into' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'awkward situations' becomes 'corners' (being in a corner is being in an awkward situation).
'o' inserted inside 'corners' is 'CORONERS'.
(Other definitions for coroners that I've seen before include "They preside over inquests" , "Officials dealing with death" .)