WSICOP Goals
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  • Provision of services to improve organizational effectiveness.

  • Increase leadership capabilities, and improve policy implementation skills.

  • Creation of a centralized information sharing and problem solving forum among community policing agencies for the dissemination of research findings at various governmental levels.

  • Promotion of sensitivity to community needs, citizen and police empowerment, commitment to long-term problem solving, and enhanced multi-cultural awareness.

Activities of WSICOP
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  • Specifically focused training is provided by the institute through its cadre of community policing trainers located at the regional centers of the Washington Criminal Justice Training Commission in Burien (Seattle) and Spokane, or through the utilization of Washington State University's electronic classroom capability throughout the state, or on-site at a host community.

  • The institute's technical assistance components link research experts, information systems analysts, community mobilization and organizational development specialists with police organizations and their constituent communities in both urban and rural environments. This focus allows the relevant community partners to develop problem identification and problem solving mechanisms, identify individuals and agencies to work within collaboration, and to appropriately allocate agency resources.

  • A broad-based and comprehensive research capacity is present to evaluate innovative community policing efforts in the areas of implementation, community participation and police-community relations, citizen satisfaction, fear of crime, quality of life, changes in actual levels of crime, and officer satisfaction and morale.

Operating Principles of WSICOP
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This philosophy of community policing in Washington is based on the following operational values:

Community involvement to establish an environment in which community members have legitimate rights, roles, and responsibilities in working with police professionals in assessing problems and designing solutions for their communities.

Service orientation defines policing as the provision of services which addresses all aspects of the problems of safety, disorder, and crime experienced by individuals and groups in the community.

Problem solving identifies community problems and their contexts and develops-by creative, proactive and consultative means-long range solutions.

Decentralization encourages initiative, responsibility, responsiveness, flexibility, and ownership of local actions by all police professionals and community members.

Governance of WSICOP
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WSICOP is guided and directed by a policy council. This council consists of citizens-at-large, small and large agency chiefs and sheriffs, criminal justice educators and trainers, as well as representatives from the Office of the Governor, the United States Attorney, and universities. A Community Policing Roundtable, with open law enforcement membership, and a Citizen's Advisory Board comprised of a broad cross-section of citizens allows for a broader scale of involvement and promotes citizen-police partnerships across the State of Washington.