PATROL DIVISION
The Kelso Police Department Patrol Division employs seventeen commissioned patrol officers and five sergeants. The patrol division provides the community a variety of patrol services that are community-police partnership driven and focus on crime-reduction strategies. The patrol division captain is responsible for the School Resource Officer Program, the Training Division, and Community-Oriented Policing.
All officers in the Kelso Police Department are trained in community-oriented-policing and use problem-solving skills to reduce crime and are committed to resolving neighborhood issues before they become unmanageable.
Each year the patrol division participates in county-wide community safety enforcement programs, such as Drive-Hammered/Get-Nailed, Seatbelt and Speed Enforcement, Every 15 Minutes, and National Night Out.
SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER
The Kelso Police Department, in partnership with Kelso High School, have mutually benefited from the services of a school resource officer (SRO). This commissioned full-time police officer provides security, administrative and crime prevention services at the high school.
TRAINING DIVISION
The department’s training division is operated by the patrol captain and utilizes a “succession planning” design in training officers for future administrative, supervisory, and investigative positions within the department. The Washington State Justice Training Committee requires all officers statewide to achieve a minimum of twenty-four hours of mandatory police training each year. The Kelso Police Department has met this challenge and continually seeks to meet this goal.
Each year the Kelso Police Department sponsors a forty-hour course in Crisis Intervention Training, a training program designed for police officers, parole and correction officers, juvenile detention officers, and hospital security staff. This course provides the officers with skills to recognize, defuse, and effectively communicate with the mentally-ill.
For more information please call us for non-emergencies at 360-423-1270.