Charleston police release 2025 report and new accountability tools
The Charleston Police Department has released three documents that will shape how the city tracks policing and accountability through 2028: its 2025 annual report, a 2026-2028 strategic plan and a new Office of Internal Affairs dashboard.
The City of Charleston announcement, dated February 1, 2026, describes the package as a new public-safety framework and information source for the city. The annual report covers department activity, outcomes and crime trends from 2025. The strategic plan sets the department’s framework for the 2026-2028 period, while the dashboard adds a public view of internal-affairs activity.
What the new documents provide
The annual report is the department’s record of its work and outcomes during 2025. It includes information about crime trends across Charleston and provides the underlying record for department activity, staffing and operational performance claims.
The strategic plan moves the department’s public planning horizon beyond the completed 2025 reporting year. It covers 2026 through 2028, giving the city a multi-year framework against which future public-safety performance can be considered.
The Office of Internal Affairs dashboard is a new public accountability tool. Its launch means internal-affairs activity is now part of the release’s continuing public-facing reporting structure alongside the annual report and strategic plan.
Together, the materials establish a baseline for tracking crime trends, staffing, complaints and department outcomes during the 2026-2028 accountability period. That baseline is important because future reporting can be compared with the department’s 2025 record and with the goals set in the new strategic plan.
What the release does not establish
The accessible announcement does not provide all of the figures contained in the underlying documents. It does not, by itself, show the full crime totals, staffing figures or complaint outcomes from the annual report and dashboard.
That means the release should not be read as evidence that crime increased or decreased citywide. The available materials confirm that the annual report addresses crime trends, but they do not supply the trend tables needed to make a direction-of-change claim here.
The same limitation applies to internal-affairs activity. The dashboard has been launched, but the approved source material does not expose its complaint figures or specific outcomes. Those details would need to be checked directly in the dashboard before being reported.
Why it matters in Charleston
For Charleston, the practical change is the creation of a citywide reference point for public-safety reporting and oversight. Residents and city officials now have a 2025 department record, a plan covering the next three years and a new dashboard intended to support continuing visibility into internal-affairs activity.
The documents also separate several kinds of information that can otherwise be difficult to evaluate together. The annual report looks backward at 2025 activity and outcomes. The strategic plan looks forward across 2026-2028. The dashboard is intended to support ongoing accountability reporting related to the Office of Internal Affairs.
That structure gives future updates a clearer context. Crime trends can be considered alongside department performance, staffing and the plan’s multi-year period, while complaint-accountability information can be tracked through the new dashboard. The release itself does not report later results, so the next known step is continued use of these tools during 2026-2028 and review of the underlying figures as they become available.
Sources
- CPD Releases 2025 Annual Report, Strategic Plan, and New Office of Internal Affairs Dashboard, City of Charleston
- Charleston Police Department 2025 Annual Report, Charleston Police Department
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