New Paradigms for Strategic Planning in Policing

By Dr. Hector Perez, Niagara Regional Police Service, and Staff Sergeant Amanda Gill, Hamilton Police Service

The unique nature of police work sets it apart from other organizations. Today, police services face a wide array of challenges, including optimizing resource allocation, streamlining operations and addressing growing demands for transparency and accountability (McIntyre et al., 2023). Rapid societal changes have heightened the need for more agile, integrated and aligned approaches to managing police resources and initiatives. Traditional strategic planning often lacks specificity and clear implementation paths, creating a gap between planning and execution (Sull, 2007; Cheung & Yu, 2020). Additionally, as senior officers transition between roles to meet organizational needs, ensuring accountability and responsibility for strategic plans becomes increasingly difficult.

To address these challenges, we propose a new approach to strategic planning in policing, one built on the disciplines of project and program management, change management and strategic planning. Our framework translates organizational strategy into actionable projects and programs (i.e., action plans) that leaders across all levels can take ownership of, fostering accountability. This approach helps bridge the common barriers to execution, monitoring and reporting, ultimately driving progress. It is based on three key principles: integration, alignment and value.

1. Integration: Strategic managers must incorporate past, present and future priorities into the planning process, ensuring that ongoing projects and programs align with the service’s overall direction. This prevents the common problem in policing of isolated efforts that lack broader cohesion. By positioning the strategic plan as a facilitator of organizational change, it becomes a powerful tool for integration. This integration helps the police service avoid disjointed efforts, ensuring that small, isolated projects contribute to the organization’s broader goals.

2. Alignment: Strategic plans must align with current organizational structures while remaining flexible enough to accommodate future changes. Alignment involves synchronizing projects and programs with resources, governance structures, performance metrics, teams and external partners. It ensures that strategic initiatives are tightly connected to the organization’s operational realities.

3. Value: Strategic leaders must distinguish between initiatives that create value for both the organization and the community, and those that are non-critical. Value creation is measured through strategic indicators such as community safety, proactive crime reduction and the overall well-being of both the community and the police service.

Our approach considers six critical steps:

1. Horizon Setting: This phase involves creating a compelling vision for the future of the police service, informed by an understanding of current resources, structures and projects. Strategic leaders must forecast trends and challenges, considering where the organization and community will be in five, 10 or 20 years. Environmental scans, benchmarks and academic insights – particularly from evidence-based policing – are essential. A cross-functional leadership team should develop this vision, resulting in clear, longterm goals.

2. Engagement: Successful strategic planning requires analyzing internal and external partners and fostering key partnerships. A communication plan ensures transparency and consistent feedback loops. Leveraging technology can improve engagement and capture honest input from internal and external parties. The outcome of this phase is a well-organized set of priorities, challenges and opportunities, all informed by active listening and collaboration. It is recommended to conduct a critical appraisal of the data collected during this phase, comparing it against current projects and programs. This ensures that ongoing initiatives are re-aligned to better serve the evolving needs of internal members and the community. The appraisal process helps identify gaps, overlaps and opportunities for improvement, ensuring that the strategic plan remains responsive and relevant to the police service and the community.

Source: Authors (2024).

3. Creating Strategies: Based on the insights gained during Horizon Setting and Engagement, strategic leaders must generate and evaluate a range of strategic options. These strategies should be actionable, realistic and aligned with the organization’s objectives. Prioritized by feasibility, impact and risk , these strategies should be translated into detailed action plans with clear responsibilities (i.e., accountable, responsible, lead), resource allocations, performance metrics and timelines. It is important that action plans: answer clearly who is doing what, when, how and why (Loch & Kavadias, 2023).

4. Track Progress: Monitoring performance is essential to ensuring that projects remain on track. By defining performance indicators aligned with strategic objectives, strategic leaders can regularly assess progress and adjust as necessary (Hine & Davenport-Klunder, 2022). Regular updates, reports and dashboards enhance accountability and transparency, ensuring that everyone in the organization remains informed.

Monitoring progress is crucial to determine whether action plans require adjustment or reinforcement, as evidence shows that projects and programs often fail due to insufficient follow-up, misalignment, incomplete requirements or inadequate resources (Shaker, 2010; Matta & Ashkenas, 2003). The outcome of this phase is a suite of tools, such as periodic reports, presentations and dashboards, designed to communicate progress and results to both members and the community, fostering accountability and transparency. Remember to KPI: Keep People Informed.

THE POLICING LANDSCAPE CONTINUES TO EVOLVE , AND AS STRATEGIC LEADERS, WE MUST EMBRACE AGILITY, INNOVATION AND A PROACTIVE MINDSET.

5. Organizing Resources: Embedding the strategic plan into the organization’s budget and resource planning cycles is crucial. Leaders must forecast future needs, invest in capacity building and ensure that resources are allocated efficiently. A well-thought-out change management (i.e., heads, hands and hearts) plan will help navigate resistance and ensure alignment with strategic goals.

6. Review and Adapt: Strategic plans must remain flexible, continuously evolving to respond to both internal and external changes. Regular performance reviews, feedback and a focus on continuous improvement (Brozovic, 2018) are essential to ensuring that the plan stays relevant and effective. Leaders should promote active participation and clearly communicate how members can contribute to ongoing projects, helping them visualize their role within the strategic plan. Aligning the plan with performance reviews reinforces this connection. Furthermore, strategic leaders should establish mechanisms for ongoing improvement and feedback collection, fostering open dialogue about action plans and identifying ways to enhance them to consistently deliver value to both the police service and the community. The outcome of this phase is a structured process for adjusting action plans (i.e., strategic projects and programs) while engaging members by showing them how they can contribute and the roles they play.

The Hamilton Police Service recently adopted a strategic plan that integrates these steps, leveraging evidence-based policing to drive value through alignment and adaptability. The policing landscape continues to evolve, and as strategic leaders, we must embrace agility, innovation and a proactive mindset. These qualities are not just desirable – they are essential to navigating the complexities of modern policing and to better understand and listen to our communities and collaborators.

Dr. Hector Perez has a doctoral degree in strategy and technology management and 10 years of progressive experience as project and program manager, evaluator and business analyst, along with experience in research and data analysis. He is certified in Futures Thinking by the Institute for the Future. His expertise includes strategy formulation, execution and evaluation.

He currently works as a Corporate Analyst for the Niagara Regional Police Service. He can be contacted at hector.perez@niagarapolice.ca.

Staff Sergeant Amanda Gill has more than 23 years of work experience in the public and private sectors, holding a diverse portfolio of roles across both fields. She holds a master’s degree in leadership and a certification in public safety leadership, underscoring her commitment to effective governance and strategic decision making. She is a passionate advocate for diversity, inclusion, participation and engagement at all organizational levels. In her role as the leader of the Strategic Initiatives Unit at Hamilton Police Service, she spearheads efforts to implement strategic changes that enhance organizational effectiveness and inclusivity. She can be reached at agill@hamiltonpolice.ca.

References

• Booth, D. (2018). Advances in project management series: How strategy happens. PM World Journal, 7.

• Brozovic, D. (2018). Strategic flexibility: A review of the literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 20(1), 3-31.

• Cheung, H. Y., & Yu, E. (2020). A review of the strategic planning process in the Hong Kong Police Force. Public Administration and Policy, 23(3), 245-258.

• Hine, K. A., & Davenport-Klunder, K. (2022). From the aspirational to the tangible: Mapping key performance indicators in Australian policing. International Journal of Police Science & Management, 24(4), 382-396.

• Lum, C., & Koper, C. S. (2024). Evidencebased policing. The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-Based Crime and Justice Policy, 245-264.

• Matta, N. F., & Ashkenas, R. N. (2003). Why good projects fail anyway. Harvard Business Review, 81(9), 109-116.

• McIntyre, M. L., Hodgkinson, T., & Caputo, T. (2023). Strategic planning practices in policing: evidence from the field. Policing: An International Journal, 46(5/6), 795-810.

• Shaker, K. (2010). Why do projects really fail? PM Network, 24(7), 20–21.

• Si, H., Loch, C., & Kavadias, S. (2023). A New Approach to Strategic Innovation. Harvard Business Review, 120-129.

• Sull, D. N. (2007). Closing the gap between strategy and execution. MIT Sloan Management Review.

• Teece, D. J., Raspin, P. G., & Cox, D. R. (2020). Plotting strategy in a dynamic world. MIT Sloan Management Review, 62(1), 28-33.

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Superintendent Robbin Abbott of the Hamilton Police Service for her support and collaboration.

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