Accreditation for the Parkside Borough Police Department
By Thomas J. Murray Jr. Chief of Police
In the late 1990’s a report by the Governor’s Alliance for Community and Law Enforcement Relations, to then Governor Tom Ridge, made recommendations to improve community and law enforcement relations. Among those recommendations was the creation of a State Accreditation Program for Police Departments. The Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association (PCPA) stepped up and utilizing models from other states, Virginia and New York among them, began the process of developing the standards required for accreditation. Today there are approximately 140 standards by which we are measured in order to achieve accredited status through PLEAC. Knowing that these standards exist and that a professional police agency had a criteria to be measured by I appointed Officer Doug Staffelbach as our Accreditation Manager assisted by Officer Pat McKeown, tasking them with guiding the department through the process to become an accredited police agency.
Officers Staffelbach and McKeown began the process by reaching out to other accredited agencies and learning as much as they could about accreditation and the process. Beginning with the standards in hand, and our then policy manual at hand, Officers Staffelbach and McKeown reconfigured our policy manual to reflect the standards established by PLEAC. Once the policy manual was completed, the next step was to demonstrate our compliance with the standards. This is done by submitting proofs of compliance for each of the 140 standards. These proofs may be in the form of reports written by the police officers as indicated by the standards, logs indicating the checking and maintenance of our cells, our procedures for handling and storage of evidence, or how we document the transport and detaining of prisoners to name a few. Currently the Officers are in the process of gathering the proofs and making minor adjustments to the way we do things here at our facility. With a little creativity and a few dollars we are making it work.
The final step in the process is the assessment by a team of assessors contracted by the PCPA. These assessors are experienced law enforcement professionals who have been trained and require refresher training every 24 months to remain as assessors. The assessor’s job is to conduct an onsite review of the department, its policies and procedures and to review all of the proofs of compliance and ensure that we have met the standards. Once it has been determined that all of the standards have been met, the assessors submit a formal written report to the Accreditation Commission with their recommendation. If all continues as planned we hope to have an Assessment sometime in the first quarter of 2023.
Why should we become an accredited police agency?
Accreditation is a process whereby a police agency can evaluate and improve their overall performance. It is based on standards containing a clear set of professional objectives. These objectives are reviewed and operations are adapted to meet these objectives. Once procedures are in place a team of independent professionals is assigned to verify that all the standards have been successfully implements.
Benefits of Accreditation
- Establishes a credible framework for evaluating agency practices and procedures.
- Reduces agency risk and exposure to lawsuits.
- May decrease some liability insurance expenditures.
- Improves law enforcement /community relations.
- Increases employee input, interaction, and confidence in the agency.
- Identifies and highlights the capabilities and competence of the agency.
- Furnishes a solid foundation for the agency to build upon for further progress.
- Provides reliable methods to improve essential management procedures.
- Extends agency accountability to the public and elected officials.
- Enhances planning and innovative activities by all agency personnel.
- Develops improved methods for providing services to the community.
- Encourages problem solving activities within the agency.
Accreditation is a road map for our department to achieve recognition as a professional police agency in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. To date there are only 145 accredited agencies in the commonwealth and many more join the process every year. In Delaware County there are only 5 other accredited police departments, Marple, Springfield, Newtown, Haverford and Nether Providence with several others working through the process. To achieve accreditation takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months to complete. Parkside is well on its way to becoming an Accredited Agency and we look forward to joining the ranks of the many Professional Police Agencies who have paved the way. We also thank the Borough Council for supporting our endeavor and making this possible.
