As part of the research for my “Toilet Not Included” series, I submitted an Idaho Public Records Law request to the City of Coeur d’Alene for the last five years’ strategic plans from both the Fire and Police Departments.  None were provided for the Fire Department.  The most recent one provided for the Police Department was its one-page 2006/07 Presentation of Police Department Strategic Plan. 

The City of Coeur d’Alene can call that one-page document a strategic plan.  The City can call it a Boeing 747 if it chooses, because it is as much a Boeing 747 as it is a strategic plan.

In the April 7, 2008,  Coeur d’Alene Press article online headlined City set to weigh budget priorities, Police Chief Wayne Longo hinted he may have begun to lead the Coeur d’Alene Police Department out of its mid-twentieth century lethargy and into the twenty-first century of modern law enforcement administration.  Press staff writer Lucy Dukes reported, “Chief Wayne Longo said he was looking at long-term planning and many of the items he submitted would not necessarily be needed right away. He said his goal is to keep the council informed on what the department needs as the city continues growing.”  Longo’s comment is encouraging.

Strategic planning has been used by law enforcement agencies for decades.  Typically it was done most often by larger local and state agencies.  It was a natural outgrowth of the recognition by local and state governments that chief law enforcement executive officers needed to be less cop and more administrator.   Understanding cars, guns, and handcuffs did not and does not translate automatically into essential administrator skills such as strategic and financial planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, critical thinking and analysis, public communications, and technology application.

Federal agencies had been doing strategic planning in a variety of forms for decades.  The problem with the everybody-do-your-own-thing style of planning was that it was very difficult for an objective outsider such as the Government Accountability Office (formerly known as the General Accounting Office but still abbreviated GAO) to make meaningful comparisons of efficiencies, successes and failures. 

The GAO is the budget watchdog for the US Congress.  The GAO defines strategic planning as, “A systematic method used by an organization to anticipate and adapt to expected changes.” 

The US Congress passed the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993.  That act statutorily required every federal agency to prepare a strategic plan, review it annually to determine which goals and objectives have and have not been met, and update the plan regularly. Section 2(a) of the law explains why Congress found it necessary to impose a strategic planning requirement on agencies. Section 2(b) explains what strict adherence to the law is intended to accomplish. Section 3 provides the structure the plans must follow. Section 4(b) describes how the annual performance plans must be prepared and submitted. Section 5 explains how managers will be held accountable.

To read a real-world strategic plan for a federal law enforcement and counterintelligence agency, see the Federal Bureau of Investigation Strategic Plan 2005-2009.  Note this is a public document.  It is not classified and hidden from the public.  Agency strategic plans are not classified in their entirety, though some plans’ annexes relating to anticipated national security issues may be.

All right, strategic planning is a good idea for federal agencies, but how would it benefit local governments? Go back to the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 and read Section 2(b). Wherever you see the word “Federal,” substitute “Kootenai County”  or “Coeur d’Alene.”  Read GPRA 93 as if it is a county or city ordinance.  That should help answer the question.

Strategic planning gives government agencies a roadmap for moving forward systematically, cost-effectively, and efficiently. An absence of strategic planning results in unfocused shortsightedness, waste, and inefficiency.

For an outstanding explanation of strategic planning (including explaining the distinction between strategic and long-term planning) read the FAQ prepared by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management.  It gives a more detailed but easily readable answer to the question What is Strategic Planning?.

Formalized strategic planning in Kootenai County and Coeur d’Alene would give our elected and appointed officials an opportunity to demonstrate their competence as public administrators. Equally important, it would give taxpayers one more tool to judge those officials’ performances objectively.

Strategic planning is a tool. We should demand that public officials, including chief law enforcement executive officers,  use all the tools at their disposal to address the challenges they face in administering public agencies and spending taxpayer dollars.