Accreditation is a familiar word in numerous industries and professions, including education and medicine. Accreditation was introduced to the law enforcement community in 1979 when several professional groups collaborated and formed the first national law enforcement accrediting body, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). CALEA was created as a result of the nationally troublesome decades of the 1960s and ‘70s, which too frequently found law enforcement failing to meet its responsibilities. Public and governmental units lost confidence in the police as riots and disturbances rocked a rapidly changing society over race and the Vietnam War. Often police were not prepared for emergencies. Agencies failed to learn from the experiences of others, and little coordination between agencies was evident. Many agencies were under-trained; selection processes were generally invalid, and were often discriminatory; policies and procedures were frequently not well written, fully thought out or regularly updated. In many police agencies, officers were underpaid, poorly equipped, unresponsive to their communities and not respected as professionals.

Many of CALEA’s standards and goals are directly related to the Report on Police issued in 1973 by the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals. This 668-page document was developed to provide guidance for law enforcement agencies as a way to improve themselves and provide better services to those they protect. Just as accreditation was part of the answer to problems of the past generation, so also is accreditation part of the solution to the issues confronting law enforcement today. Currently, CALEA accreditation embodies the only comprehensive and creditable standards for agencies within and outside the United States.

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.

The process is entirely voluntary. It is entered into by the law enforcement agency voluntarily. The agency chooses to comply with applicable standards voluntarily and voluntarily chooses to remain in the accreditation process.

The standards address seven major areas consisting of: law enforcement roles, responsibilities and relationships with other agencies; organization, management and administration; personnel structure and process; traffic operations; prisoner and court-related operations; communications; and property and evidence control.

The Long Hill Township Police Department applied for CALEA accreditation in 1999 and received initial accreditation in 2001. As part of the process, three qualified assessors hired and trained by CALEA, visit the agency every three years to assess the agency's compliance with applicable standards. They spend nearly one week onsite. They report their findings to the Commission staff. After a review of the report, the Commission staff refers the report to a committee comprised of CALEA commissioners. A hearing is held between candidate agency representatives and the committee. The committee then votes on the recommended status of the agency and refers its findings to the full commission for a vote.

As part of the re-accreditation process, CALEA assessors re-visited the Long Hill Township Police Department in December, 2006 to conduct a comprehensive five day inspection/assessment of police operations. The CALEA assessor team consisted of Team Leader Chief William New of the Charleston County Aviation Authority Police Department, Charleston SC; Lieutenant Bradley Biller of the Bowling Green Police Division, Bowling Green, OH; and Chief Phillip Crowellof the Auburn Police Department, Auburn, ME.

In March 2007, members of the Long Hill Township Accreditation Team, consisting of Sergeant Ted Bremer and Sergeant Steven Schiebler, traveled to Greensboro, NC to attend the CALEA hearing to decide the department’s accreditation status. After the hearing the Long Hill Township Police Department was re-accredited by a vote of the full commission. The next onsite will be in 2009.

Click here to see the 2007 accreditation letter.
Click here to see the 2004 accreditation letter.
Click here to see the 2001 accreditation letter.