Commission to Vote on Accreditation : Sheriff’s Department Vies for ‘A’ Grade

It’s been a long 2 1/2 years for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. And Sheriff John Duffy knows it. During that time, he and his troops have worked toward making the grade. This weekend will prove if the hard work has paid off.

The 21-member national Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies will cast its vote Sunday on whether the Sheriff’s Department should be accredited.

If all goes well, the department will join a handful of police agencies that have met more than 900 requirements set by the nation’s top four police organizations.

“Accreditation for law enforcement is similar to a hospital or university becoming accredited,” said San Diego Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Scanlon. “It is a way the service population can be certain that they are receiving the services they deserve.”

Commission officials said 11 law-enforcement agencies from nine states will be judged this weekend. Twelve agencies already have received the honor.

Beth Denniston, a spokeswoman for the commission, said its approval doesn’t make police agencies any more legal than they already are--an arrest is still an arrest, accredited or not, she said.

What it does do, she said, is require police agencies to meet high standards that may have not been met.

“In terms of power, I would say that we have none,” Denniston said. “But in terms of an objective assessment and an objective test to determine the professionalism of a police department, we do have power.”

One Sheriff’s Department spokesman commented, “We always talk about our professionalism to the public, but that is us talking. Now we can have an independent agency come in and evaluate us objectively, on our merits.”

The standards, set by the International Assn. of Black Law Enforcement Executives; the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs’ Assn. and the Police Executive Research Forum, range from when an officer should be disciplined to in-house recruitment policies.

Scanlon said the Sheriff’s Department had little trouble meeting most of the standards set by the commission. He did, however, say that many policies and procedures that were once passed by word of mouth had to be formally written down in a manual.