After concluding its first year as a police force Sunday, the Marquette Police Department revealed its official mission and vision statements Tuesday.
The mission statement is: “Guided by respect, fairness, and compassion, MUPD fosters a safe environment for Marquette and our neighbors through education, community engagement, and service.”
“I think people know what we’re about, but to actually see it on paper is important,” MUPD Chief Paul Mascari said.
Mascari acknowledged it took longer than he hoped. “It’s been a long process because we wanted to get not only input from the staff within the police department, but we also wanted to get input from the outside constituents,” he said.
Marya Leatherwood, vice provost for strategic and academic planning, facilitated work groups to gather ideas for the statements.
Leatherwood conducted a meeting with the MUPD command staff that lasted about two hours. She split them into groups and asked three questions regarding the mission statement: What is the primary purpose of the organization? Who are the primary constituencies that are served? How are these constituencies served?
Leatherwood said the groups had similar suggestions, but “Each group often times adds some piece of unique information that the other groups tend to say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s good,’” she said. “Bringing those together is where that process really works well.”
Mascari concurred. “I think the process we used with the help of Dr. Leatherwood was a really good one, and I think it came from the rank-and-file of the department,” he said. “It was input from police officers, dispatchers, public safety officers, administrative staff, everybody had the opportunity to submit input and direction of where they thought the department should be going.”
Regarding the vision statement, Leatherwood asked the command staff groups to think about, “What they would like to see this organization become in the next five to 10 years. What would they aspire, specifically, to have MUPD known for?”
The group input directly impacted the vision statement, Leatherwood said.
“There was one group that had noted to become a national model for innovative police practices. The first version was ‘seeking to create an empowered community.’ This one puts those two together I think in a much better way. I was really delighted to see that they went back and included a really lofty, aspirational goal,” she said.
With May 1 as MUPD’s one-year anniversary, Mascari felt the announcement was fitting.
“The timing of this is appropriate,” he said. “We’ve wrapped up our first year, and now we’re looking ahead to year two. We’ve been focusing on our mission this past year, but now it’s time to focus on what our vision is in the department in the years to come.”
Leatherwood agreed. “The mission statement says who you are now, what you’re doing, the vision says where you want to be in the future,” she said.
“We changed what we are,” Mascari said. “But we really haven’t changed who we are.”
