The Bremerton Police Department will undergo a thorough vetting by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.

The review comes at the request of new Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan.

“I would call it a very comprehensive peer review, and the people that do it only look at police departments,” Strachan said. “Right now is a really good opportunity because I’m new to say, ‘Okay, what do we do well and what can we improve on?’ “

The WASPC program is known as the Loaned Executive Management Assistant Program and will cost the city $5,000. Strachan said the review will better position the department to seek accreditation and will help in long-term planning.

“As we develop our business plan, I’d like to have that objective baseline to provide us a really good comprehensive peer review before we get into it,” Strachan said. “It’s just good self reflection. That’s what professional organizations do, is they invite a good robust peer review, it’s sort of the definition of being professional.”

A similar review was recently done at the Bainbridge Island Police Department and the published results were far from flattering. The report was highly critical of department leadership and called for across-the-board changes.

“There’s was sort of at a different time in their departmental evolution,” Strachan joked.