ACCREDITATION

By Mike Kanalakis

As national and local incidents involving law enforcement continue to expose questionable police practices and increase public scrutiny, we must emphasize the need for police officer accountability and accreditation.

Initially, California was cool to the concept of national standards for police. However, in 1992 standards were mandated by the legislature in the wake of the Rodney King riots with the proviso that no Peace Officer training funds were to be used for development or implementation. The California Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) took on the project and by 1994 came up with a draft proposal. By 1998 the draft proposal completed in 1994 was approved for release to California Law Enforcement Agencies for voluntary compliance and testing. POST still does not have funds available to test or implement the standards it has developed for California Peace Officers. Considerable work and testing lies ahead for POST before these standards become mandated, yet POST feels that these standards will be operational statewide by 2005.

The Monterey County Sheriff's Department has a unique opportunity to implement and test these standards before they become mandated. In order to demonstrate to the public that we are the leaders in public safety service in Monterey County this should become an absolute top priority. The benefits far outweigh the risks.

"The standards will help the department strengthen crime prevention and control capabilities; formalize essential management procedures; establish fair and nondiscriminatory personnel practices; improve service-delivery; solidify interagency cooperation and coordination; and boost citizen and staff confidence in the agency. Seeking to establish the best professional practices, the standards prescribe `what' agencies should be doing, but not `how' they should be doing it. That decision is left up to the individual agency and its Chief Executive Officer. The accreditation process serves as an `audit' to determine whether or not the department's operational policies, written and unwritten, comply with the standards to which city managers, county administrative officers, police chiefs and sheriffs are held accountable by the courts and the public in the everyday conduct of their business. The accreditation process also helps the Sheriff manage the department while giving the County Administrative Officer an objective measure of the department's performance. " - CALEA web site

Besides bestowing recognition on outstanding law enforcement agencies, accreditation confers such benefits as an improved, more effective administrative system, reduced liability potential, greater supervisory accountability and greater governmental and community support. As national and local incidents involving law enforcement continue to expose questionable police practices and increase public scrutiny we must be prepared to deal with criticism and public opinion. These demanding and difficult times emphasize the need for accountability and accreditation. We cannot afford to ignore it.