Welcome to the Salem Police Department 2025-2027 Strategic Plan. The strategic plan's three-year framework represents our commitment to enhance the way we serve our community. The objectives, strategies, and goals provide focus for the department, ensuring the best use of our limited resources toward measurable progress.

Mission, vision and values

Every strategic plan weaves in a mission to help define a purpose, a vision for what will be achieved, and the values, or principles, on which the organization's work is based. The following statements and principles were developed as part of the strategic plan:

Mission – Provide superior service to keep Salem safe while enhancing trust.

Vision – To be a model for 21st-century policing using effective, innovative, community-informed approaches toward improved safety.

Values – Collaboration • Honor • Integrity • Compassion

Three Priority Areas

A set of three priority areas were established for the plan and continue for the subsequent three-year period, with objectives and initiatives adapting to the needs to the community and the department. They are described as follows:

Safety - Protecting both community members and employees by reducing violent crime, addressing serious traffic collision, and supporting overall well-being. 

Trust - Deepening legitimacy by strengthening relationships, practicing procedural justice, and ensuring transparency in our decisions and actions.

Excellence - Reflects the quality the department strives to achieve through the continued commitment to learning, innovation, and professionalism so we serve with consistency and distinction.

Learn more about the development of the first public strategic plan, and read about the highlights from that plan.