Carlsbad police unveil three-year strategic plan emphasizing engagement, coaching and technology

Police Chief Christy Calderwood presented the department's three-year strategic plan, covering July of this year through July 2029, and described three guiding initiatives: community engagement and public trust (including the new community engagement division and COPS team), coaching/mentoring and leadership development, and technology and innovation modernization.

Calderwood said the plan is meant to provide guideposts and deadlines. "This plan does run from July of this year into July 2029. So three years," she said, adding the plan includes sub-initiatives with fiscal-year timelines and an implementation schedule. She said the department is in the middle of upgrading its computer-aided dispatch system and has signed a contract for a new records-management system pending CAD updates; the technologies are intended to help stand up a real-time crime center.

Commissioners asked whether a previous three-year plan existed (the department had an earlier plan under a prior chief) and pressed for measurable metrics. A commissioner asked what baselines and metrics will show progress for community engagement and personnel development; Calderwood said a captain is tracking task-level progress in a "smartsheet," and the department will report on COPS accomplishments and other metrics to council and the commission in six to 12 months.

The plan includes employee feedback sessions, consultant-led workshops and community surveys. The chief said the strategic plan does not divert the department from core patrol and investigative responsibilities and that the "main thing" remains responding to 911 calls.

The commission did not take formal action but requested future presentations and performance updates.