A five-year strategic plan for the Washington Police Department was approved by the city council Tuesday.
Chief Jim Lester mentioned that this plan has been in the works since his proposal during his interview for the job two years ago, and was drafted with input including the Washington Police Community Advisory Committee that was formed last fall and a public online survey conducted this winter. The plan details four strategic issues of community engagement and community policing, personnel/staffing, crime and investigations, and technology. Council Member Danielle Pettit-Majewski commented on an objective within the personnel section that states completing a staffing analysis by 2022 with the goal of hiring additional staff to improve the safety of the community. She asked if Lester would consider hiring a mental health professional to assist with any calls, which he said would be great but thinks it would be difficult to have them available in a timely manner.
Lester says his officers do a good job of communicating with people, “You know several of them have had the CIT (Critical Incident) training already. We’d like to get the rest of them through that, it’s just scheduling with the numbers we have doesn’t allow that all the time because it’s a weeklong training. So we’re working on that, but they do a good job of handling those situations. I really think we could spend that money better on officers rather than having somebody available on a part-time basis that may not be able to come out at the times that we need them.”
City Administrator Brent Hinson commented that a regional approach to hiring a mental health professional would be good. The strategic plan is described as a living document to be reviewed each year through 2026. You can find a copy of the plan on page 180 of the document below: