A team of assessors from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) arrived in Fayetteville in December for an on-site inspection that was part of the Fayetteville Police Department’s re-accreditation process. The culmination of that process came March 26 in Bethesda, Md., when the department received its fourth three-year CALEA accreditation.
Chief Steve Heaton and representatives of the Fayetteville Police Department last week traveled to Bethesda to go before the CALEA review board. The review resulted in the recommendation that the Fayetteville Police Department be re-accredited.
The re-accreditation was presented at a banquet held on March 26, said department spokesperson Steve Crawshaw, adding that the CALEA Commission awarded the Fayetteville Police Department its fourth CALEA accreditation. The police department has been CALEA-accredited since 2002, Crawshaw said.
Crawshaw said a presentation before Fayetteville City Council will be held upon receipt of the certificate.
The December CALEA assessment team included law enforcement practitioners from similar, but out-of-state agencies. The assessors reviewed written materials, interviewed individual officers and toured places where compliance could be observed. Chief Richard White of Portage Police Department (Portage, Mich.) and Captain David Dodd of Citrus County Sheriff’s Office (Inverness, Fla.) served as the on-site assessors.
Accreditation is for three years, during which the agency must submit annual reports attesting continue compliance with those standards under which it was initially accredited.
