Diagnostic Analysis for the Spokane Police Department: Opportunities for Evidence-Based Technical Assistance

• NCJ Number: 250595
• Date Published: October 2016
• Length: 41 pages
• Agencies: OJP-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Technical Assistance); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description; Case Study

Annotation

This is the executive summary of the report on the training and technical assistance (TTA) package provided by the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs' (OJP's) Diagnostic Center to the Spokane (WA) Police Department (SPD) at its request for an examination of its resources and capacity to implement community policing strategies and community outreach initiatives.

Abstract

The intended outcome of the Diagnostic Center's TTA is the identification of data-driven, evidence-based solutions that will result in resource deployment that better meets community-policing objectives. The components of the TTA effort are to diagnose the current situation (understand the criminal justice problem and identify what works in the community); implement what works in the community; and assess how well it worked. At the time of the writing of this report, the diagnosis of the current situation had been completed. The Diagnostic Center had completed 50 structured interviews of key stakeholders and analyzed data for the purposes of developing a baseline understanding of staffing, deployment, and workload; identifying community perspectives and insights on SPD's community policing programs and community-police relations; and identifying SPD's strengths, challenges, and areas for improvement. The diagnostic component also involved the analysis of data on officer availability, so as to determine the amount of proactive time available for community policing activities. The diagnostic component also identified training and technical assistance for strengthening strategies for officer deployment and improving community-policing programs. The next step is to identify practice-based or evidence-based strategies that have been assessed as effective in contexts similar to that of Spokane and then select the "best fit" evidence-based models. Community and organizational readiness for each model will also be determined. After implementing selected evidence-based interventions, the next step will be to assess how well the interventions worked in Spokane. Appended supplementary data and contacts