The Walnut Creek Police Association recognizes that Walnut Creek is a very special place and is a community that many of our own members like to call home. We believe that the citizens of this great city both deserve and demand high-quality law enforcement services.
We strive to provide quality law enforcement services to this great community, by highlighting the importance of:
1. Recruiting and retaining “top-tier” employees who have the ability to deliver high-quality service to the community.
2. Ensuring the Police Department operating budget is adequately funded to provide the right amount of training, basic tools, and modern equipment which will enable our Officers to accomplish our primary mission; Quality service.
In this modern day, professional law enforcement officers are more than just someone wearing a uniform, driving around in a patrol car. Although we still respond to fights and burglars breaking into homes under the cover of darkness; today professional peace officers are often called upon to do much more.
For example, we often conduct time consuming and complex investigations. Some examples of these investigations are financial fraud, identity theft, and a number of other “Hi-Tech” crimes. Many of these require an Officer to have the ability to decipher multiple Internet Protocol addresses, track transactions through various computer systems, and thwart the criminals attempts to hide their true identity from the authorities.
A professional peace officer also has to make several split-second decisions, in the heat of the moment, that often have significant legal consequences in both the criminal and civil courts. These same Officers have to articulate and justify these decisions in court, for attorneys who will often spend hours arguing the merits of these decisions, after having the luxury of carefully researching legal libraries. Police Officers have to have a strong working knowledge of statutes and related court cases “on the fly,” while dealing with fluid and dynamic high-stress situations. The law is constantly evolving and keeping abreast of these changes is no small task.
These job requirements and many others speak to the importance of recruiting and retaining the right person for what many call an “impossible job.” A top-tier Officer with the proper training is able to manage all of these tasks without incurring a significant amount of liability on to the city he or she serves.
A bottom or lesser-tier candidate with limited or poor training is not able to manage these same duties. A lesser tier candidate is often the subject of complaints, exposes the city to significant amount of civil liability, and criminals are “set free” when the officer does not perform or articulate their work properly in criminal court.
The WCPA wants our police department to continue to provide a high level of service to our community. High quality service is accomplished through recruiting and retaining great employees and by providing these skilled employees with the basic tools and equipment to get the job done.