The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) held a public input meeting on June 8 pertaining to the organization’s Gold Standard re-accreditation assessment of the Peachtree City Police Department. The result of the full assessment was a recommendation that the department receive a 3-year re-accreditation.
Interim Chief Stan Pye on Thursday said CALEA representatives conducting the on-site evaluation will be recommending that the department receive another 3-year accreditation based on what was considered a perfect on-site review.
Pye said the recommendation will go before the full CALEA board for a vote at the conference in Miami in November.
The June 8 public input meeting was attended by six citizens and a number of elected officials.
A small group of citizens at the meeting provided only positive input on their impressions of the department.
Peachtree City resident Charles Whitlock said he had been involved with police outreach projects such as the CERT (Citizen Emergency Response Team) program.
Whitlock said he has personal experience with a relative who received a quick and thorough response from officers in a time of need.
“They are involved with the community and they put things in place that benefit and support the community,” Whitlock said.
The meeting was also attended by several current and former city council members, most of whom spoke. One of those, Councilman Mike King, said he was once an antagonist of the police department but changed his mind after serving on the council and seeing the department’s work from a different perspective.
“My hat is off to Stan Pye and the chain of command,”King said.
The meeting was conducted by CALEA representatives Dan Boring and Brad Biller.
Department spokesman Mark Brown said the Peachtree City Police Department was initially accredited on November 21, 1992 and then re-accredited in November 1997, November 2000, November 2003, November 2006, November 2009 and November 2012. The accredited status was initially granted for a five-year period. The Commission has now reduced the length of time to three years. During these three years, the department has submitted annual reports attesting to its continued compliance with accreditation standards.
