SMART Partnership

With recidivating offenders garnering national media attention, concerns of community safety, and knowledge that supervised offenders are at risk for reoffending, both local police departments and corrections officials are developing methods to enhance the supervision of offenders in the community. In response to such concerns, many cities are beginning to implement strategic plans between police departments and state corrections departments to improve [Page 422]their supervision of these offenders in the community. In 1992, the Redmond Police Department, located in Redmond, Washington, a suburb of Seattle 16 miles to the east, collaborated with the Washington State Department of Corrections in Bellevue, Washington, another east-side suburb, and launched the Supervision, Management, and Recidivist Tracking (SMART) Partnership. The SMART Partnership program had the strategic goal of ensuring the safety of community members through enhanced supervision of offenders.

In 2008, according to the Washington State Department of Corrections (WA DOC), there were 18,623 offenders under some form of incarceration: prison, work release facilities, rented in-state beds, or rented out-of-state beds. The majority of WA DOC offenders are male, and the average age of all offenders under supervision is 36.9 years of age. Additionally, the majority of those who are incarcerated are serving sentences of two to five years, with a five- to 10-year sentence being the second most common time being served by offenders. Moreover, WA DOC reports that their readmission rate is 37 percent.

This recidivism rate is well below that of other states in the nation, which have recidivism rates that fall between 50 and 70 percent. In terms of those under community supervision in King County, the counties in which Redmond and Bellevue are located, WA DOC (2008) reports that there are approximately 14,000 individuals. When these offenders harm the public and government officials in Washington State while under community supervision, the demand by the public for protection from these offenders is high. To help alleviate these concerns over supervised offenders' recidivating, a unique crime-fighting tool, the SMART Partnership, was developed in Washington State.

The SMART Partnership started as a collaboration between Redmond, Washington, police officers and Bellevue, Washington, community corrections officers (CCOs). It was implemented in 1992 to increase the supervision of offenders who reside in, or frequently visit, Redmond. The SMART Partnership program is a two-part program in which police officers and CCOs assist one another in the supervision of offenders under a community corrections sentence.

T. Morgan described the program in a 2002 report in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. In the first part of the SMART program, Redmond police officers assist CCOs in the monitoring of offenders who reside in their patrol areas. In conjunction with WA DOC Bellevue CCOs, Redmond police officers are assigned from one to two offenders to supervise. The CCOs provide the officers with information such as to where the offender resides in Redmond and the conditions of supervision that the offender is required to follow. During routine patrols, the assigned Redmond police officer and a partner may stop by the residence of an offender under supervision once or twice per month to determine if the offender is indeed home during curfew hours. Following the random check-in, the officer documents the visit on a form and provides it to the offender's CCO. If the officer observes any illegal activity, the officer will take normal law-enforcement actions.

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