Item B: Annual Meeting with Police Commission

Home Browse Search

Eugene Police Commission Outreach Toolkit In 2011, the Eugene Police Commission embarked upon a comprehensive outreach effort to gauge the community needs and concerns related to a proposal by the Eugene Police Department to close a community police station. A committee of the Commission spent several months meeting with members of the community, neighborhood groups, business leaders, non-profit organizations and staff directly affected by the closure. The result was a set of recommendations rooted firmly in the expressed concerns of the public. In addition to developing the recommendations, the Commission sought to capture the steps taken and documents produced, to begin to create a toolkit to help the Commission or the Department on subsequent important outreach efforts. While every step does not need to be taken in every situation, this can serve as a check list of items to consider in every case. 1. Define the project Clearly define the decision or options known Clearly define the timeline consistent with externally established deadlines Clearly define the purpose of the outreach effort 2. Identify all possible affected parties Who are the people affected by this? 3. Identify unique strategy to communicate with each segment of the community What are the specific tools that can be used with each segment? Social media? Public meetings? Small discussions? Flyers? Use multiple formats throughout the process, noting what is successful 4. Document all media efforts Create running tally of meetings, comments, media pieces 5. Document and report back all comments received Indicates and documents that all comments were heard, and considered. Helps capture breadth of comments, both the loudest and last, as well as the quiet and first comments 6. Consider Triple Bottom Line Evaluate and provide the public with the analysis of the fiscal impact of any proposal, as well as the sustainability and social impacts 7. Share findings Share information throughout the process with others, to gain and maintain credibility and support for project 8. Seek status reports on results Obtain periodic status reports for the work and recommendations of the public, until the project is complete 9. Report back to all who provided comments Provide feedback to people who invested their time, to let them know what happened with their comments Check back with the stakeholders after the project is complete to gather their perceptions after the project is complete FY 2012 Police Commission Annual Report