September 10, 2015

When dealing with police legitimacy issues, it is commonly held that the behavior of individual officers defines what good policing is or should be. However, organizational behavior – whether a community-based mission-development session or full strategic planning process – helps to set the tone and the stage for individual officers’ actions, conduct and behaviors to be better received and accepted.

As the new Chief for the Greenville Police Department in North Carolina, I experienced the impact of purposeful, strategic community engagement firsthand. Satisfaction with policing services in my city was divided among racial demographics and trust was wavering. This distrust was negatively impacting our department’s ability to provide for the safety of all Greenville residents, and was a situation I needed to address.

In seeking research-based guidance on how to incorporate the community into the department’s planning process, I discovered that few police have worked very closely with the community to guide the department through its mission and strategic plan development. However, I knew that when community stakeholders are actively engaged, relationships are built. There was immense potential for benefits to our department and our community; we needed to invite community stakeholders into our planning process.

Groups who had not traditionally worked with each other – and historically not worked with the police department – attended our planning session. Their attendance built community ownership and buy-in for our plan as we developed a new Greenville Police Department mission statement and the goals and actions necessary to achieve it.

The benefits of this process were almost immediately noticeable. Citizen complaints decreased while communication increased, and the overall relationship between the Greenville community and police department continues to change for the better.

Proactively including the community in the strategic planning process helped to break down some trust barriers and invest the community in the police department’s mission. Additionally, our process created invaluable new community advocates and partnerships.

A community-inclusive strategic planning process will likely expose the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of a department. However, it will also help to build a unified plan with community support to move a department forward. Police seeking to improve their community relationships, and ultimately to increase their legitimacy within their communities, ought to consider this as part of their comprehensive plan. If the process is managed properly, it can have a significant, positive impact.

For more information, visit http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display…