GARDEN GROVE : Assessment Team to Visit Police Dept.

An assessment team will visit the Police Department later this month, examining all operations as part of a process that is expected to lead to accreditation and national recognition for excellence, according to Chief Stanley L. Knee.

As part of the review, the public and department employees are invited to comment on the department’s services and performance.

A public hearing is scheduled at 7 p.m. May 24 in the City Council chambers, 11300 Stanford Ave.

Capt. Dave Abrecht said the police departments of Garden Grove and Berkeley are the only two in the state to have received accreditation from the Commission for Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies. Redondo Beach also is completing the process, Abrecht said.

The assessment team will be made up of three police officials from Indiana, Arizona and Minnesota. It will go over 900 standards and procedures in the department’s General Orders Manual during its May 22-27 visit, Abrecht said.

The assessment is especially helpful in keeping the department’s policies and standards current, he said, as well as to protect against claims of excessive force and improper police pursuits.

The accreditation of police departments will be a growing trend “and we want to be in the initial group,” Abrecht said. The local department was accredited for a five-year period in 1988.

The assessment “establishes some legitimate criteria for calling yourselves professional,” Abrecht said. “It’s not just us saying that we are.”

The department has 165 sworn officers for a ratio of 1.1 per 1,000 residents, one of the lowest officer-to-resident relationships in Orange County, he said.

People wishing to comment but unable to attend the public hearing may call at (800) 368-3757, or they may speak to a member of the assessment team on May 24 or May 25 from 1 to 5 p.m. by calling (714) 741-5928.