Police captain outlines strategic plan emphasizing recruitment, transparency and technology

Captain Barton presented the Oak Harbor Police Committee Advisory Board with a five-year strategic plan at the board’s May 7 meeting, describing priorities that include recruitment and retention, organizational efficiencies, accountability and transparency, and growth management.

The plan follows a successful reaccreditation process. "We passed our accreditation. And so we've now been recertified, for the next 4 years or 5 years," Captain Barton said, and the department created a new five-year strategic plan to guide staffing, training and systems work.

Why it matters: the department described short-term operational steps — hiring, digital records, improved reporting — intended to affect officer staffing and public access to complaint and use-of-force records. Those changes could alter how residents obtain information about police conduct and how the department recruits and retains staff.

Barton told the board the department purchased a series of laptops for roughly $100,000 during the last fiscal year and has created new positions to…