Public Safety Advisory Task Force

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The Tempe Public Safety Advisory Task Force is a group created by Tempe Mayor Corey Woods with the primary goal of building trust, accountability and dialogue between the community and the Tempe Police Department. The task force focused on policies, hiring, use of technologies, training, data and how the city engages with people who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, people experiencing homelessness and those with mental health challenges.

Task force members came together in a series of focused conversations between October 2020 and January 2021 to influence the future of policing in Tempe.

An implementation plan based on the task force recommendations is underway. Visit the Tempe Community Safety Plan pages for more details.

Community Safety Plan

Explore the Community Safety Plan dashboard
The City of Tempe is turning community recommendations into action with open strategies and transparent progress on an array of public safety reform measures in a comprehensive Community Safety Strategic Plan. Inspired by recommendations from the Public Safety Advisory Task Force led by Mayor Corey Woods, Tempe’s Community Safety Strategic Plan builds on six thematic pillars linking strategic directions, strategies, actions and data to increase trust between the Police Department and the community. The plan focuses on policies, hiring, use of technologies, training, and how the city engages with people who are black, Indigenous and people of color, and those with mental health challenges.

Recommendations

Task Force Participants

In alphabetical order, participants include:

Keisha Acton
Dr. Robbie Adler-Tapia
The Honorable Arlene Chin
Suzanne Durkin-Bighorn
Melody Elkin
Hassan Ellsaad
The Honorable Pam Goronkin
Dr. Raquel Gutierrez
Viri Hernandez
Patti Hibbeler
Alana Chávez Langdon
Dr. Shereen Lerner
Jacob Moore
Jon Mulford
Randy Perez
Jacob Raiford
Sue Ringler
Rabbi Dean Shapiro
Michael Soto
Roy Tatem, Jr.
Genevieve Vega
Janelle Wood

City of Tempe Representatives
Mayor Corey D. Woods
Councilmember Randy Keating
City Manager Andrew Ching

Tempe Police Department Representatives
Chief Jeff Glover
Asst. Chief Michael Pooley
Tempe Officers Association President Sgt. Rob Ferraro

Facilitation Team
Rosa Inchausti
Wydale Holmes
Jonae Harrison

Participatory Process

City of Tempe’s Strategic Management Process

In 2016, the City’s Strategic Management and Diversity Office (SMDO) adopted the Institute of Cultural Affairs’ Techniques of Participation (ToP)® method of facilitation for strategic planning. This is the method being used for the Public Safety Advisory Task Force meetings.

This method, proven as a national and international technique for participatory processes, focuses collective power for change and is a structured process designed to:
• Maximize participation
• Build consensus
• Foster collaboration
• Generate innovation
• Focus on the future
• Garner commitment
• Propel action
• Increase accountability

The method is scalable and SMDO has facilitated with groups of varying sizes, from 12 – 90 participants, including interdepartmental staff teams and community groups, such as:
• Sustainability Commission
• Family Justice Commission
• Human Services Department
• Veteran’s Commission
• Historical Preservation Foundation
• Human Relations Commission

The strategic planning process produces two key deliverables:
1) Strategic plan, and
2) First-year implementation plan

The Strategic Planning process consists of six workshops (about 3 hours in length each)
1. Orientation - Leading with Data: Welcome, Purpose, Process
2. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis
3. Creating Vision
4. Identifying Barriers
5. Creating Strategies and Directions
6. Plan Review and Ratification

The Implementation Planning process creates actionable, accountable, detailed action steps for each strategy, establishing:
1. Substantial Actions
2. Measureable Accomplishments
3. First-year timeline and assignments
4. 90-day priorities and implementation steps

Five key elements are integral for each strategic planning workshop:
1. Focus questions
a. What do we want to see in place as a result of our actions?
b. What is blocking us from moving towards our vision?
c. What sustainable actions, policies, tenets and procedures will deal with the barriers and move us toward our vision?
d. What will be our specific, measurable accomplishments for the first year?
2. Brainstorming - individually and in small groups
3. Clustering - forming relationships among the ideas with the larger group
4. Naming – generating consensus of the ideas; creating descriptive phrases
5. Consensus and Resolve
These facilitation methods and structure are practical tools for enabling productive, inclusive and meaningful participation. Structured participation enables deeper levels of commitment, greater capacity for sharing wisdom and owning decisions arrived at collectively.

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