Okanogan County Organizations Offering Community Survey on Policing

The Okanogan County Sheriff's Office and Omak Police Department are partnering with Okanogan County Community Coalition (OCCC) to offer a survey to the public on local law enforcement.

OCCC Executive Director Stacey Okland said the community survey is part of a grant project OCCC received from the Department of Commerce. The grant came out of Washington State Senate Bill 5353 and Okland said OCCC applied for the grant based off of previous work they've done with Omak police on underage drinking laws.

"This is our assessment piece." Okland explained, "We're just trying to gather some information from the community to find out what their thoughts are, how they feel about the community and how they feel about their interactions with law enforcement."

The survey, which is open until June 30th, was designed by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Policing Services, or COPS. It in part is meant to asses five key components: community involvement, procedural justice, performance, safety, and satisfaction.

The survey, which is currently only available in English, can be found here. It should take roughly seven minutes to complete and there is a space for comments at the end.