City of Salem Community Service Officer Program

The City of Salem Police Department and Marion County will use JAG funds for the City’s community service officer (CSO) program to relieve sworn police officers of their duties where enforcement action and arrest powers are not required. Additionally, they request funding on behalf of Marion County Sheriff’s Office for procurement of AI-based software supporting automated communications. The CSOs respond to time consuming calls for service within the City of Salem such as non-injury accidents, traffic control, cold burglaries, stolen vehicles, animal complaints, noise complaints, found property, and other events of a similar low priority. The CSOs are trained to process crime scenes for the collection of physical evidence. Prior to the CSO program, complainants and victims of crimes could wait for several hours for an officer to arrive because the officers were involved in higher priority calls for service. The development of the CSO program allowed the police department to reduce the wait times for response to non-emergency calls for service.