PO police chief says 2025 a ‘year of growth’ for department

“2025 is going to continue to be a year of growth for us,” Port Orchard police chief Matt Brown said. “As the community continues to bring more people there are always issues that they look to the police…to solve.”

This year the city police plans to increase investigations into serious crimes, expand and diversify personnel and even get local cops to sweat more.

Investigations

The investigations unit, which does follow-up work on mostly felony cases, will be expanding, Brown said.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

“We’re going to have the largest general investigations unit we’ve ever had,” the chief said. Investigations had been staffed with one detective until recently. In January, two additional detectives joined the unit. The expansion allows more serious cases to be worked. The detectives will work on sex offenses, aggravated assaults, burglaries and robberies.

“I was a detective for a number of years and really enjoyed it. We’re also looking at partnering more with the sheriff’s office in Bremerton because we know that the people victimizing this community don’t respect the boundaries. You know, just because you don’t live in Port Orchard doesn’t mean you don’t come here and commit crime.”

Staffing

A priority of the new year is to hire more officers. The force is expected to have 27 officers but has five open positions, leaving the force down nearly 20%.

“There are things that we can’t do right now because we don’t have the resources. If we don’t have enough staff then we end up being more reactionary than proactive as we would like.”

One area Brown would assign more officers to would be traffic enforcement. “Since the pandemic, speed has gone up significantly as have collisions. Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources necessarily to do that at the level that we want to do right now because we’re responding to 911 calls.”

The city police seem to be unable to keep up with growth. While the police force is down officers the number of 911 calls is on the rise. In 2024, there were 16,144 calls, up 5% from 2023, per Brown.

As the department moves to attract new candidates Brown pointed out there is a drive to increase the number of female officers. Currently, 17% of the officers are women, he said. To boost the percentage, the department is participating in a national law enforcement initiative called “30 by 30,” which calls for 30% of the force to be women by 2030.

The chief also wants to ensure his office includes a variety of backgrounds.

“One of the things that the community had asked was to increase diversity in hiring,” he said. “About 17% of our commission staff are self-identified as persons of color. We want to be representative of our community. It’s a fairly homogeneous community, but you know it’s important to have people from all backgrounds.”

Census figures indicate Port Orchard is made up of 73.6% caucasian and 26.4% as non-white.

To attract the right candidates the department will set up a more formal recruitment plan, Brown said. “We are targeting a little bit better, instead of just throwing the word out there, ‘Hey, we have jobs.’

“When I say targeted recruitment, we are still going to select top candidates, but we want to expand our pool of candidates who want to serve their community. We’ve committed to hiring the right people instead of just filling positions,” Brown said.

Department representatives will attend job fairs at Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Bangor Naval Base and universities.

The department will also continue to utilize social media to attract new cops. “We’ve increased our social media presence. The goal is to keep us out there and in people’s minds,” he said.

Training

Port Orchard officers will do more scenario-based training in 2025. “Instead of just talking about things that are going to be out there they are going to be practicing scenarios so they have to make decisions and take actions,” the chief said.

Managing people in high-risk scenarios, conducting building searches and doing traffic stops, are some of the mock situations officers will undergo. “We want to make sure that they’re constantly equipped with the right approach and right tools,” Brown said.

Reaccreditation

This year the POPD undergoes reaccreditation by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. Every four years the state law enforcement group determines if the department meets professional standards and is following best practices.

Gym

2025 will be the time for local cops to work up a sweat. The department is setting up a gym for those in uniform. The goal is to boost officer wellness. Funding was obtained, with assistance from the Gig Harbor Police Department, from the Criminal Justice Training Center.

The workout area will allow officers to keep physically fit and mentally active, the chief said. Officers will be able to use the facility before or after their shift.