Woodstock Police Services Board Approves a New Strategic Plan

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Tuesday, 9 June 2020 15:03

Woodstock Police Chief Daryl Longworth says one of the key elements of the Woodstock Police Services Strategic Plan is fostering a culture of collaboration and engagement with the community.

WOODSTOCK - The Woodstock Police Services Board have approved the new Strategic Plan with clear cut goals set for the next three years.

A few minor edits need to be made before the document will be released to the public before the end of the week. It will be available on the Woodstock Police Services web site and as soon as it is, we will provide you with a link to the document.

Police Chief Daryl Longworth mentioned the Strategic Plan when he gave a statement regarding the Black Lives Matter movement on Friday.

"Our new strategic plan, which is being presented to the Police Services Board Monday, June 8, 2020, includes commitments to continue to foster continuous collaborative engagement and dialogue with our diverse communities, and to provide enhanced diversity and conflict resolution training for our members. This is a commitment that we take very seriously. We know there is work to do and we are committed to working with our community to ensure everyone feels safe and included."

The plan was approved on Monday with a few minor edits that are being made. Longworth says this is something they have been working on for awhile.

"We started working on it right away, pretty much when I got here in September and the collection of information that helped inform the plan came from public surveys that were done. We engaged some of our community partners and stakeholders, I went around talking to individual organizations about what they expect from police, what do you like about the service you are getting and what would you like to see from the service. We also engaged our members, as far as our workplace and our work environment, how can we do better in providing our members the tools they need to get the job done."

He explains the three major goals they are looking to achieve in the Strategic Plan.

"Improving community safety, fostering a culture of collaboration and engagement with the community and enhancing organizational excellence. We started to zero in on these as being our top three priorities way back in January, long before the recent media attention, not to say long before the problem was there because the problem has always been there. Certainly this was not a knee jerk reaction."

Longworth says priority number 2, fostering a culture of collaboration and engagement with the community is what he spoke about in his message the other day regarding Black Lives Matter.

"It is about making sure we are communicating well with all members and all groups within our community, reviewing our protocols to make sure there is better inclusion of our community partners. Reporting victims of crime and developing community mobilization, collaboration, engagement and dialogue, all of those things that should have more of a representation in informing how we do our business, how we train our people, how we recruit, how we hire, all of those kind of things."

You will be able to read the Strategic Plan on the Woodstock Police Department web site by the end of the week.