Coalition of Small Police Agencies

The Coalition of Small Police Agencies (CSPA) is a partnership of small municipal police departments in King County, Washington, in the United States. It was formed so that small departments, which individually lack the staff and specialist resources to handle serious crimes, could pool their capabilities. Its best-known activity is a shared Major Crimes Task Force, which investigates offences such as homicide and kidnapping on behalf of member cities that could not otherwise staff such investigations alone.^[1:1]

The coalition draws on small cities on the Eastside and in South King County. Beyond major-crime investigation, participating departments have also cooperated on training, enforcement of laws against driving under the influence, prisoner transport, shared court agreements, and shared jail space.^[2:1]

Background

Small municipal police departments often cannot absorb the demands of a major criminal investigation without committing their entire staff, leaving routine patrol uncovered. An incident that illustrated this problem occurred in Black Diamond, a city of about 4,000 people: a fatal stabbing drew all 11 of the department's officers for two days, and neighbouring Enumclaw had to cover calls that came in to Black Diamond during that time.^[1:2]

Formation

In 2005 a coalition of King County's smallest police departments announced the creation of a Major Crimes Task Force, a step that state officials described as an important and innovative advance in law enforcement.^[1:1] At the launch event, held at the Black Diamond Community Center, Governor Christine Gregoire pledged $100,000 in state funding to the coalition.^[1:3]

The founding commander of the task force was Christopher Hurst, an investigative commander with the Black Diamond Police Department. Hurst said the goal was to assemble the best available expertise rather than to divide seats equally, so that some departments contributed two officers to the task force and others contributed none.^[1:4]

Major Crimes Task Force

At its launch the task force had 14 members and was set up to respond to serious crimes ranging from homicide to kidnapping in small cities across the Eastside and South King County. It was designed to work alongside the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory and the Most Dangerous Offenders Program within the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.^[1:5]

The task force has continued to operate. Brian Lynch served for three years as its commander, overseeing detectives drawn from 13 different cities, before being appointed permanent chief of the Snoqualmie Police Department effective December 1, 2023.^[3:1] Member cities continue to list participation in both the coalition and its Major Crimes Task Force among their police departments' affiliations.^[4:1]

Member agencies

Membership has varied over time, and sources give different counts: the founding coalition was reported to include 14 cities in 2005,^[1:6] a later case document described 12 participating departments,^[2:1] and a 2023 account referred to detectives from 13 cities.^[3:1] These figures reflect changes in participation and possibly differing definitions of membership rather than a single settled roster.

At the 2005 launch the coalition comprised 14 cities, together home to more than 77,000 residents.^[1:6] They were:

Other cooperative activities

A case document published by the International City/County Management Association describes the coalition as created to help small departments overcome the limitations of their size. Through the coalition, member departments carried out joint training and DUI enforcement, transported prisoners, developed cooperative court agreements, and shared available jail space.^[2:1] These arrangements extend the coalition's shared-resource model beyond major-crime investigation into routine operations that are costly for a small agency to maintain on its own.

Analysis

The coalition is an example of how intergovernmental cooperation can raise the effective capacity of small jurisdictions. A resident of a town with 11 officers has access, through the coalition, to investigative expertise and forensic partnerships comparable to those available in larger cities, without that town bearing the full cost of maintaining them. In this respect the arrangement widens the practical options available to small communities for responding to serious crime, closing part of the gap between the protection available in small and large jurisdictions. The main documented trade-off is uneven contribution: because seats were allocated by expertise rather than equally, some member cities supply personnel to the task force while others rely on it without contributing officers directly.^[1:4]