Since 1996, the Commission has used strategic planning to commit resources and guide the work of staff toward completion of objectives that are meaningful to POST’s stakeholders. The POST Strategic Plan has been updated several times since its inception, with 2015 being the most recent. 

In September 2020, POST staff, representing each bureau, formed the Strategic Plan team to facilitate an update of the POST Strategic Plan for 2021. POST staff met with executive staff to discuss the project and the desired outcomes. It was agreed that the 2021 Strategic Plan would serve to prioritize the efforts and resources of POST for the next three to five years and be developed in collaboration with POST staff and representatives of those who POST serves. The Strategic Plan team was tasked with:

• Refining the goals, objectives, strategies, and action items, making them relevant to today’s issues
•  Developing new action plans: tasks, timelines, roles and responsibilities

The goal of the Strategic Plan team was to take the 2015 document and completely refresh it for 2021, creating specific, attainable action items to complete within the next three to five years. Through weekly meetings, the team developed a Strategic Plan document based on extensive research, thorough reviews of the 2015 plan, an external stakeholders survey, and consultation with POST staff.

The team started the process of putting together a new, revised plan by going through all of the goals, objectives, and strategies, researching their current status. The Executive Office also provided feedback at this stage, providing insight on where the 2015 plan left off. After this review process, it was discovered that 25% of the items were completed from the 2015 Strategic Plan. The remainder of the items were either no longer relevant or evolved over time, which prompted the need to update accordingly and create/add in new strategies. Once a draft document was formed, the team requested POST staff feedback by taking the plan back to each of their respective bureaus. From there, new items were added in and irrelevant items were updated to reflect attainable actions that can be accomplish within the next three to five years. After several rounds of draft documents going back and forth with POST staff on revisions and additions, the team opted for input from the field to fully round out the new Strategic Plan. 

With input from the Executive Office, the team developed a survey and identified individuals externally who offered a broad representation. More than 250 surveys were completed by various representatives of law enforcement (executive, command, management, supervision, and line level), as well as public safety dispatchers, training managers, coroners, records supervisors, district attorney investigators, and academy directors. The information was compiled into a Key Findings Summary. Using the collected information and key findings, POST staff crossed referenced the plan to see if there were any gaps missing that needed to be added in regard to the addressing concerns from the field.

The document was presented to POST Executive staff for final review and input. The final draft was approved by the Executive Director. 

The 2021 Strategic Plan contains five goals that describe the primary focus of the plan. These were identified by POST staff and stakeholders as follows:

• Maintain Leadership in Emerging Issues in Law Enforcement
• Increase Efficiency in POST Systems and Operations
• Increase Awareness and Access to POST Services and Products
• Enhance Law Enforcement's Ability to Serve Their Communities
• Enhance Law Enforcement Certification/Decertification (Senate Bill 2)

There are 15 objectives which are housed under these goals, with more to come once SB 2 passes and goes into effect. A separate addendum will be added to the Strategic Plan if/when SB 2 is signed.

The 2021 Strategic Plan (See Attachment A) was developed with extensive input, both internally and externally, and contains goals and objectives that will enhance POST as an organization, as well as direct POST’s efforts and resources to meet the emerging needs of the law enforcement community. During the development of updating objectives and strategies, equal consideration was given to ensure the plan would remain relevant to the daily efforts of the organization.   

The Strategic Plan team also created a companion document, the Implementation Plan, (See Attachment B) which goes into detail with specific tasks and action items that will help track and accomplish the overall strategies, objectives and goals.     

The Implementation Plan will be accessible to all staff through Microsoft Teams. The progress on each action item will be updated by the assigned bureau. This will facilitate communication and collaboration across bureaus on projects, allow each bureau input if applicable, and will help to eliminate duplication of effort. This also will allow all staff to be aware of action taken on projects throughout the organization.   

An Implementation team will meet periodically on an internal basis to review the progress of the action items and to discuss any additions or modifications needed. This makes the Strategic Plan a living document and allows POST to be agile in response to emerging trends and needs of the law enforcement community.