PORT ANGELES — An outside assessment of the Port Angeles Police Department shows the agency is professional, well regarded and has the building blocks to implement effective community policing.
The study encourages the department to enhance its relationships with community members and make hiring women and minorities a priority.
“We are very pleased with the report,” Police Chief Tom Riepe told members of the media Friday before releasing copies of the 91-page document.
The assessment was conducted last April by the Western Regional Institute for Community Oriented Public Safety, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, at the request of the Police Department.
A nine-member team, led by WRICOPS Executive Director John Goldman, also a former sheriff and director of emergency management in Spokane County, conducted 166 interviews with police, neighboring law enforcement agencies, local and tribal government leaders, judges, prosecutors, school officials, business people and community members to analyze how the Police Department uses its resources and assist in enhancing the department’s community policing efforts.
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The rest of the story appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News.
