Community Engagement at the WCSO is a foundational element of our ability to realize our organizational mission. Embracing our role as a service organization, “engagement” describes how we perform our duties, and how we interact with and relate to the residents of Washtenaw County. We believe that we exist to serve the residents of Washtenaw, making our communities safer and contributing to the improvement of everyone’s quality of life. Community Engagement isn’t just a program. It is how we communicate, build trust, identify needs and collaboratively work side by side with our partners to create interventions and provide solutions.
Whether it's a small intimate setting where five officers sit with five residents over lunch or a room full of 600 people discussing solutions, the WCSO has worked tirelessly to balance traditional law enforcement responses with non-traditional responses and to enhance what you see when you look at the badge. For some events we meet only once for a few hours and for others we meet weekly. There are times when we just need to sit and listen and others where we spend time sharing what we do and why we do it. All of this was designed as a systemic approach to engaging our community.
To learn more download the Community Engagement Program Manual.