Preliminary Report: Community-Law Enforcement Partnership Program (Washington Commerce, January 2022)
Summary
Preliminary report per RCW 43.330.545(6) on the Community-Law Enforcement Partnership (CLEP) program, a January 2022 report to the Legislature from the Office of Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention / Public Safety Unit of the Washington State Department of Commerce. It states that the Legislature created the program in 2021 and appropriated $2.5 million to be spent before June 30, 2023. The first round of contracting resulted in a commitment of $1.5 million in grant funding to support eight projects. An advisory group met twice in September 2021, and the report states that Commerce will submit a second report by Dec. 1, 2023.
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Preliminary report per RCW 43.330.545(6)
January 2022
OFFICE OF FIREARM SAFETY
AND VIOLENCE PREVENTION /
PUBLIC SAFETY UNIT Report to the Legislature
Lisa Brown, Director
Acknowledgments
Washington State Department of Commerce
Diane Klontz, assistant director
Community Services and Housing Division
Corina Grigoras, deputy assistant director
Community Services and Housing Division
Kate Kelly, executive director
Office of Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention /
Public Safety Unit
Washington State Department of Commerce
Kate Kelly
Kate.kelly@commerce.wa.gov
Phone: 360-628-6846
OFFICE OF FIREARM SAFETY AND VIOLENCE
PREVENTION / PUBLIC SAFETY UNIT
1011 Plum St. SE
P.O. Box 42525
Olympia, WA 98504-2525
www.commerce.wa.gov
For people with disabilities, this report is available on
request in other formats. To submit a request, please
call 360-725-4000 (TTY 360-586-0772)
PRELIMINARY REPORT: COMMUNITY-LAW ENFORCEMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM
Table of Contents
Executive summary .............................................................................................................................................................. 2
Advisory group ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Selected grant recipients ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
Measuring program outcomes and reporting ................................................................................................................... 6
PRELIMINARY REPORT: COMMUNITY-LAW ENFORCEMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM 1
Executive summary
Overview
The Legislature created the Community-Law Enforcement Partnership (CLEP) program in 2021 to facilitate
community-law enforcement partnerships and improve police-community relations in Washington communities.
The Legislature appropriated $2.5 million for the CLEP program to be spent before June 30, 2023. RCW
43.330.545 details the scope of the CLEP program and directs funds to be used for neighborhood organizing,
law enforcement and community partnerships, youth mobilization, and/or business engagement. This report is
submitted to satisfy the reporting requirements in subsection 6 of the authorizing statute in section 6:
The department shall, in consultation with the Washington state institute for public policy, develop reporting guidelines
for the grant recipient in order to measure whether the safe streets pilot project [sic] had an impact on crime rates and
community engagement with, and perceptions of, law enforcement. The department shall submit a preliminary report
to the legislature with details on the selected grant recipients and the reporting guidelines by January 1, 2022. The
department shall submit a final report on the safe streets pilot project, including an analysis of the reported data
required under this subsection, by December 1, 2023.
Progress
Commerce convened an advisory group of subject matter experts to help inform the design of the CLEP
program and the distribution of funds. The advisory group met twice in September 2021 to discuss the
grant process and reporting guidelines.
The first round of contracting for the CLEP program — developed in consultation with the advisory group
and the Washington State Institute of Public Policy — resulted in a commitment of $1.5 million in grant
funding to support eight projects in Washington communities. The second round of contracts will be
initiated in early 2022.
Table 1: CLEP program implementation schedule
Actual or planned date Action
May 18, 2021 SSB 5353 creating the CLEP program signed by Gov. Jay Inslee
July 25, 2021 Effective date of RCW 43.330.545
Sept. 9, 2021 Community-Law Enforcement Partnership Advisory Group convened
Oct. 1, 2021 Request for proposals issued
Oct. 29, 2021 Proposals due from bidders
Dec. 15, 2021 First round of contracts signed
Jan. 1, 2022 Preliminary report to Legislature
February 2022 (tentative) Second round of competitive bidding for uncommitted funds launched
May 2022 (tentative) Second round of contracts signed
June 30, 2023 Expiration of contracts and current funding for CLEP projects
Dec. 1, 2023 Final report to Legislature
Jan. 1, 2024 Expiration date for CLEP program in the absence of further legislative action
PRELIMINARY REPORT: COMMUNITY-LAW ENFORCEMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM 2
Advisory group
To help inform the design of the CLEP grant program and the distribution of funds, Commerce convened an
advisory group of subject matter experts. The group included representatives from:
Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council
Northwest High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program
Safe Streets, Tacoma
Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs (WaCops)
Washington Association of Sheriff and Police Chiefs (WASPC)
Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP)
At two meetings in September 2021, the advisory group members considered and made recommendations in
response to the following questions:
Funding options: What is the best way to distribute the available funding?
Selection criteria: What factors should Commerce consider in evaluating the proposals?
Engagement: How can we ensure genuine grassroots involvement in this process?
Law enforcement grantees: If a law enforcement agency is eligible for a grant, how do we ensure that the
funds do not subsidize their gang unit or ongoing programs?
Reporting: What should we require grantees report?
Combined with existing legal requirements and procedures, this discussion helped inform the policies and
procedures adopted to administer the CLEP program, including the grant application process, the disbursement
of the grant awards to selected applicants, tracking compliance and proper use of funds, and measuring
outcomes.
PRELIMINARY REPORT: COMMUNITY-LAW ENFORCEMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM 3
Selected grant recipients
The competitive grant process
Commerce is careful to ensure that the competitive processes for our grant programs comply with state rules
and policies, are fair and open, and administer state funds in a fiscally responsible manner. Commerce must
establish and maintain a level playing field for potential grantees and follow existing processes and parameters.
This creates integrity and evenhandedness in the process.
Grantee eligibility
Subsection 3 of RCW 43.330.545 establishes grantee eligibility requirements for the CLEP program:
Be a public agency or nongovernmental organization
Have demonstrated experience with community engagement initiatives that impact public safety
Have established or be willing to establish a coordinated effort with committed partners, which must
include law enforcement and organizations committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion of community
members, including organizations whose leadership specifically reflects the communities most impacted
by racism; and
Have established priorities, policies, and measurable goals in compliance with the requirements of the
project as provided in RCW 43.330.545(5), including:
Lead and facilitate neighborhood organizing initiatives, including:
Empowering community members with tools, skills, confidence, and connections to identify,
eradicate, and prevent illegal activity;
Making neighborhood improvements to deter future criminal activity; and
Educating community members regarding how to connect with city, county, and law enforcement
resources.
Build substantive law enforcement-community partnerships, including:
Building trust between community members and law enforcement by facilitating purposeful
antiracist practices and the development of policies that lead to equal treatment under the law;
Establishing clear expectations for law enforcement to be competent to practice fair and
equitable treatment, including facilitating dialogue between law enforcement and community
members to increase understanding of the impact of historical racist practices and current
conflicts;
Community members regularly informing law enforcement, through presentations, workshops, or
forums, on community perceptions of law enforcement and public safety issues;
Educating community members on the role and function of law enforcement in the community;
Clarifying expectations of law enforcement and of the role of the community in crime prevention;
Educating community members on the best practices for reporting emergency and
nonemergency activities;
Recognizing community members for effective engagement and community leadership; and
PRELIMINARY REPORT: COMMUNITY-LAW ENFORCEMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM 4
Recognizing law enforcement officials for efforts to engage underrepresented communities,
improve community engagement and empowerment, and reform law enforcement practices;
Mobilize youth to partner with neighborhood groups and law enforcement to prevent violence by:
Helping them develop knowledge and skills to serve as leaders in their communities;
Focusing on prevention of violence and substance abuse; and
Empowering youth to bring their voice to community issues that impact healthy police-
community relations;
Engage businesses to help prevent crimes, such as vandalism and burglaries, through safety training
and other prevention initiatives;
Provide training and technical assistance on how to implement community engagement, improving
law enforcement and community partnership, youth engagement, and business engagement;
Identify and maintain consistent, experienced, and committed leadership for managing the grant,
including an administrator who acts as an available point of contact with the department; and
Collect and report data and information required by the department.
A law enforcement agency may be considered an eligible applicant only if there are no other eligible applicants
from the community or county in which the law enforcement agency serves.
Budget
The Legislature appropriated $2.5 million for the CLEP program for the biennium ending June 30, 2023. The first
round of contracting resulted in a commitment of approximately $1.5 million to eight projects. Commerce will
implement a second round of contracting to commit the remaining funds.
Selected grant recipients
Building on successful ongoing efforts, the CLEP program is designed to support 12 to 15 projects across the
state, including in Spokane, Pierce, King, Okanogan, Yakima, Cowlitz, Clark, Chelan-Douglas, Walla-Walla, Benton-
Franklin, Grant and Snohomish counties. This way, projects will be implemented in urban, rural and suburban
areas to facilitate community-law enforcement partnerships and improve police-community relations.
The first round of contracting for this program resulted in a commitment of grant funding to support eight
projects in:
Omak, Okanogan, Pateros and Tonasket
Cowlitz County and South Kelso
South King County
Snohomish County
Spokane County (two projects)
Tacoma and unincorporated Pierce County
Cities in the Yakima Valley region
PRELIMINARY REPORT: COMMUNITY-LAW ENFORCEMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM 5
Measuring program outcomes and reporting
The statute creating the CLEP program directs Commerce to have a process to measure outcomes and to
require grantees collect and report data according to guidelines developed by Commerce in consultation with the
Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP).
The information requested is intended to provide a foundation for assessing whether the program and projects
affect crime rates, community engagement with law enforcement, and perceptions of law enforcement within
the public. See RCW 43.330.545(2)(d), (5)(g) and (6).
A senior research associate from WSIPP's Criminal Justice Research section participated in the CLEP program
advisory group discussions and separately consulted with Commerce staff as the CLEP grant program and
contracts were assembled.
In addition to reporting on outcomes and measures specific to each grant, organizations receiving funding from
the CLEP program will report quarterly on:
The number of community members directly engaged "When police gain community trust and
through conducted activities, including an aggregated residents see police as partners to
description of the race, ethnicity, gender, and other improve neighborhood conditions,
characteristics of those individuals as available. preventive crime reporting to police can
increase and neighborhood crime rates
The number of crimes reported to law enforcement and the
can fall."
number of persons arrested (defined as a physical arrest,
citation, or served summons). To the extent available, this Campie, P., Petrosino, A., Fronius, T. & Read,
data will be reported in subcategories broken down by types N. (2017). Community-Based Violence
of offense (for example, property crimes or violent crimes) Prevention Study of the Safe and Successful
and demographically (for example, by race or ethnicity). Youth Initiative: An Intervention to Prevent
Urban Gun Violence. American Institutes for
Trends in perceptions of law enforcement based on Research. Washington, D.C.
surveys, evaluations, anecdotal information or other
measures.
The information above will be gathered regularly across CLEP-funded efforts.
Commerce will submit a second report on the CLEP program, including an analysis of the funded organizations'
data, by Dec. 1, 2023. Conclusions about the effectiveness of those efforts are expected to be determined in
consultation with researchers at WSIPP.
PRELIMINARY REPORT: COMMUNITY-LAW ENFORCEMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM 6
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