Chief Sean King, Westfield police chief, presented the department's five-year strategic plan to the Westfield Common Council, outlining priorities including district-based patrols, expanded traffic enforcement, additional school resource officers and stepped-up special-event planning. King told the council the plan grows the department's investigative capacity, adds an intelligence analyst and a wellness coordinator, and invests in technology such as body-worn cameras, drone and automated license-plate scanning systems.
The plan, King said, was developed from a four-month interview process with officers, crime and census data, conversations with other area chiefs and 77 community survey responses. "We assume population growth of about 8% based on 2020 to 2023 data," King said, and added that Westfield's violent- and property-crime rates are lower than state and national averages. He said the department currently records about 45,377 calls for service and 1,746 offense reports in 2024.
Why it matters: King said the city's continuing growth, recurring large events and the Westfield-Washington School District's expansion will increase demand for police services. The plan includes near-term operational steps the department intends to take under its current budget and some items that would require future funding or partnerships.
King described five strategic focus areas: community safety and crime prevention; community partnerships and engagement; infrastructure and technology; staffing and training; and officer wellness, retention and recruitment. He said the department will move to district-based patrols so officers take specific ownership of neighborhoods and trails, begin additional trail patrols next week using existing budgeted salary funds, and expand the traffic unit with one additional traffic officer over the next two years to address neighborhood speeding and stop-sign infractions.
On school safety, King said he expects to add two school resource officers this year from the existing budget and that an updated memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Westfield-Washington School District is anticipated in October. "Our goal is to see an SRO in every single school," he said, adding those additional positions will depend on negotiations with the school corporation and available funding.
King also outlined investments in investigative capacity and forensic services: the department recently assigned an investigator to a financial-crimes task force that worked a complex fraud case, and the plan anticipates adding intelligence analysts in 2026 and 2027 and expanding DNA/criminalist capabilities by 2029. He said the department now has three trained canines with drug-detection, tracking and apprehension capabilities and plans to add a fourth so every shift has a canine team.
On special events, King said Westfield will consider a nonreverting fund to pay off-duty and outside officers promptly for event security rather than rely on slow reimbursements. "By creating a nonreverting fund ... we're able to pay those officers in a timely manner and then get reimbursed by the event to go back into the nonreverting," he said, adding that relying solely on current staff for frequent large events is unsustainable.
Councilors asked how the department will increase public communications and outreach. King said the department will meet regularly with homeowner associations, expand the Citizens Academy and post monthly crime and use-of-force statistics on the department website rather than relying on the board-of-works postings where some residents do not look. He acknowledged the city's current databases for some permits and registrations are limited and said staff will explore better ways to reach residents.
The mayor and council praised the plan's emphasis on partnerships, interagency cooperation and officer wellness. The presentation was informational; council took no formal funding vote at the meeting, though King said several items (two SROs this year, adding personnel and equipment in future years) would come back for budget consideration. The chief and mayor indicated they will continue to return to the council with more detailed staffing plans and any request for budget adjustments.