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The following police services are offered by the Black Diamond Police Department:
- Patrol
- Coalition of Small Police Agencies (CSPA)
- DARE
- Special Operations Team
- Major Crimes Task Force
- Sex Offender Information
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The patrol section responds to approximately 2,200 calls for service each year. It is staffed by one sergeant and seven police officers. The response time for emergency calls for police is outstanding, with the average response being less than six minutes.
The city’s crime index, a measure of the crime rate per thousand citizens, is one of the lowest in the state. Black Diamond is a community that does not experience a high rate of serious crimes such as robberies, rapes, and assaults. During the year 2011, Black Diamond police officers issued 800 traffic citations, made 350 arrests, and investigated 25 traffic accidents.
All new officers start their career in the Patrol section. Patrol officers are able to receive specialized training in areas such as Field Training for new officers and traffic accident investigation. Later, they may move to more specialized assignments.
Typically, each officer is trained for several other assignments in addition to their patrol work. This is how the Department is able to provide such a high level of service to the community with a limited number of officers. |
The Coalition of Small Police Agencies was established in 2002 to create a forum to address the concerns of small police agencies in King County and to find ways to provide alternatives to the high cost of utilizing specialty services. The Coalition consists of 14 small city police agencies throughout King County, in total; these agencies employ approximately 150 commissioned officers serving a combined population of over 66,000 residents.
Small agencies often do not have the budgets to send their employees to necessary training to be safe in their jobs. The coalition has implemented a training program to meet the needs of the small agency. The training that is now available through coalition resources which include; Defensive Tactics/Firearms, Fire Arson Investigation, Bicycle Patrol, Blood Borne Pathogen, Domestic Violence, Incident Command, Narcotic Detection, Radar/Lidar, Emergency Vehicle Operation, and Active Shooter.
The cities have found that by combining resources, to include personnel with specialty training and expertise, manpower and equipment the cities can save a substantial amount of money. These resources not only could be used during times of emergent need but to help one another in keeping pace with the ever increasing requirements placed on law enforcement. By combining coalition resources they can now can provide manpower and equipment for; Critical Incidents, Crowd Control, Special Event, Interpreters, Asset Seizure, K9, Polygraph, Helicopter, and In-Service Training.
At this time the members of the Coalition of Small Police Agencies are the cities of; Algona, Black Diamond, Clyde Hill ,Yarrow Point, Duvall, Carnation, Enumclaw, Issaquah, Lake Forest Park, Medina, Mercer Island, Hunts Point, Normandy Park, Pacific, and Snoqualmie |
D.A.R.E. returned to the Black Diamond Elementary School in April 2009 when Officer Brian Lynch completed his training for the program. D.A.R.E. is short for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, the police officer-led series of classroom lessons in some communities starts in Kindergarten and continues through High School graduation. In Black Diamond, the focus is on Elementary School children. For more information you can visit www.dare.com.
To prepare himself for the D.A.R.E Program, Officer Lynch withstood below freezing temperatures and two feet of snow in New Hampshire to become certified as a D.A.R.E. Instructor. The highly intense 80-hour training course culminated in Officer Lynch teaching a 5th grade lesson at the Center Strafford Elementary School.
After years of going into the elementary schools in Enumclaw to teach safety to his own daughter's classes, Officer Lynch has taken on the important responsibility of instructing the children of Black Diamond on how to stay alcohol and drug free. "It started when my daughter was in kindergarten, " he said. "I would bring the police car to the school and talk about how to be safe around strangers, or at the bus stop, or how and when to dial 9-1-1. She like it so much that I came back a couple times a year until she moved on to middle school." Now Officer Lynch will be able to provide even more children with the decision making tools offered in D.A.R.E.'s 10-week curriculum.
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The Department, through the Coalition of Small Police Agencies, provides member(s) to this team. This tactical team is trained and equipped to respond to situations beyond the scope of normal patrol duties, such as dignitary protection and high-risk warrant service.
The team is comprised of several officers who volunteer for the extra duty, which is in addition to their normal assignments. Upon selection, they must successfully complete SWAT school, pass a physical-conditioning test, and attend monthly training drills to remain on the team. |
In 2005 the coalition formed a Major Crimes Task Force; the investigators on this task force will have the appropriate training to investigate most types of major crimes. The task force will consist of:
- 4 commanders
- 10 investigators
- WSP Crime Lab Response Team
- Liaison from the Prosecutors Office
- Liaison from the Medical Examiner’s Office
- Two fully equipped crime scene vehicles
To help defray the cost of forming this task force the coalition received a grant from the State of Washington for the amount of $100,000. |
The Community Protection Act of 1990 (which mandates sex offender registration) allows law enforcement agencies to track where sex offenders live. There are currently two websites which provide information on where level 2 and level 3 sex offenders live, as well as provide general and informative content regarding sex offenders in general. These websites allow citizens to input an area code or other general information and receive information regarding specific information of level 2 and level 3 registered sex offenders.
The King County Sheriff's Office releases information on registered sex offenders in King County in accordance with the Community Protection Act of 1990 and related statutes. This information is not intended to create alarm or panic. The intent is to inform citizens and to enhance community safety and awareness.
These individuals have served the sentence imposed by the courts and in compliance with the Community Protection Act, have advised the King County Sheriff's Office that they will be living in King County. Please note, these individuals are not wanted by the police at this time. In addition, because there are no court ordered restrictions regarding their residency, neither the King County Sheriff's Office nor the Black Diamond Police Department have the legal authority to direct where a sex offender may or may not live.
Citizen abuse of this information to threaten, intimidate or harass registered sex offenders will not be tolerated. In fact, such abuse could end law enforcement's ability to notify the public.
For more information about sex offenders in our community, please click on the link below:
King County Sheriff's Sex Offender Search Website: http://www.icrimewatch.net/index.php?AgencyID=54473&disc= |
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