POLICE ACCREDITATION.

It is difficult to rationalize the need and the practical meaning of “Accreditation” of a municipal Police Force. To have it is an Ego trip; but it is only a reflection on management of the Department.

The accreditation is done by The New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police (NJSACOP) a professional membership organization serving New Jersey's law enforcement and private security executives.

There is also a national organization: The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) that provides similar programs and indeed is the standard by which the NJ group follows.

There are of course fees involved in the accreditation. Although minimal it has to be repeated every three years; the initial cost was quoted as $83,094.00. Of this amount $58,340.00 is the fee charged by the ‘consulting firm “The Rogers Group” to prepare the department for qualification and to run training courses for policemen to meet the standards set down by the accrediting organization. Incidentally the Rogers Group is the only one in New Jersey that does this training or reviews the Departments.

The training courses are computer Internet driven and the participant must pass a test for credit.

At present the State Division of Criminal Justice Police Training Commission conducts at various locations including Union County “A Basic Course for Police Officers” which must be passed before they can become part of a department. There are segments that must be repeated on a semi-annual basis. Is this being done at present and accountable records kept. Accreditation would be dependent on this.

One of the strongest arguments for the “accreditation” is that too often a case is lost in the court because an officer has stated that he was not trained how to act under the involved circumstances. This results in successful suits against the city.

Rogers claims that the accreditation will result in lower insurance premiums.  Since premiums are based on experience that can only suggest that this agency’s online courses are more successful than the State’s.

I consider that the problem is one of management not lack of “accreditation”. The data for an efficient operating police department is in the state regulations which includes proper record management.. They must be implemented along with periodic examinations of personnel conducted to make sure that all have received (and retained) proper education. If our house is in order the expense of a label is unnecessary.

It is noteworthy that the Department of Public Safety consists of two divisions. One the Fire Department has a Chief in charge to be responsible for day by day operations. The Police Department Chiefs position was eliminated several years ago and the Director of Public Safety has filled that post along with his other responsibilities. Any failure in the Police division may possibly be attributed to that vacancy which should be reinstated.