Community Oversight of Law Enforcement

What's happening?

The Social Justice and Equity Commission voted to advance the recommendations to the City Council’s Community Livability and Public Safety (CLPS) Committee, which will discuss the recommendations at their May 22 meeting.

About the project

The City of Olympia’s Social Justice and Equity Commission is exploring models for community involvement and oversight for the Olympia Police Department to recommend to the City Council. The Commission will identify opportunities to improve policies, practices, and training to enhance transparency and accountability.

To accomplish this goal, members of the Commission, members of the community, and members of the Olympia Police Department are working together, bringing a diversity of lived experiences and professional expertise to the process, and collaborate to develop a recommendation that reflects our community’s values and needs.

In the first phase of the process, each group worked independently to:

• Learn how community members are currently involved in law enforcement;
• Learn about current systems for oversight and accountability;
• Identify values they feel need to be reflected in their recommendation; and
• Identify priorities and draft concepts for community involvement and guidance.

In the second phase, participants from all three groups are coming together to develop one draft recommendation. They are collecting input from community members on the draft through a survey, and then work together to finalize a recommendation.

In the last phase, the Social Justice and Equity Commission will bring forward a final recommendation to the City Council Community Livability and Public Safety Committee, then to the City Council for consideration and final approval.

Why are we doing this?

In December 2022, the Olympia City Council accepted a set of recommendations from a community work group on how to reimagine public safety for the City of Olympia. To develop those recommendations, the work group listened extensively to our community over the course of a year, and then developed strategies and actions that reflected the needs and desires of a diversity of our residents. One of the strategies they identified was to expand the community’s role in the City’s public safety system.

Unlike other communities across the nation, this process is not being driven by a federal or state requirement, but instead, is a continuation of the Olympia Police Department’s long history of embracing changes that enhance public trust, transparency, and accountability, and inspire greater community confidence in the Department.

How is this work being done?

This process involves three different work groups that come together in the second and third phases of the process to collaborate on developing a recommendation on how community members are involved with and offer guidance to law enforcement.

Community Participants
The Community Participants are a group of ten community members with varying experiences with law enforcement who bring to the process a diversity of lived experiences and perspectives.

Olympia Police Department Participants
The OPD Participants include officers and staff from different divisions and levels of leadership within the department who bring to the process law enforcement expertise and lived experience.

Social Justice and Equity Commission Subcommittee Participants
A subcommittee of the Social Justice and Equity Commission will serve as Participants on behalf of the Commission, bringing an equity perspective to the process, contributing professional and lived expertise, and being charged with developing the final recommendation to be forwarded to the City Council for consideration.

How to get involved

Stay informed
Community members are invited to follow the process by reviewing meeting summaries and presentation materials, which will be shared after each group meeting.

You can also attend Social Justice and Equity Commission meetings.