Fayetteville's police department has entered the ranks of Georgia's best-trained

and best-operated law enforcement agencies.

Police Chief Johnny Roberts reported recently that the department received state

accreditation and, for the second year in a row, was named Georgia's best-trained police

organization during a conference of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police last weekend.

"I'm very proud of the men and women in the police department who worked very

hard to develop these standards," Roberts told

the City Council in a recent presentation of the awards.

The Outstanding Award for Departmental Training recognizes the fact that

Fayetteville's officers on average have undergone

174.8 hours of training, highest in the state,

Roberts said.

Accreditation recognizes that the city has met standards adopted by the state last

year after years of discussion and research. The department is one of only 24 accredited in

the state thus far.

Early in the discussions, Roberts said, he attended training sessions and meetings

and, when a set of 104 standards were published in summer 1997, "I wanted to immediately

do it," he said.

The department started the process in October with revision of its policies and

procedures manual to mirror the new standards. With

a new 402-page manual in hand, the next step was to train officers in those procedures

and implement them in Fayetteville, Roberts said.

"It's not enough to have it written down. You also have to do it," he said.

The procedures cover every aspect of operating the police department. For example,

an accredited department must have and implement guidelines for operating

emergency equipment, including high-speed pursuit.

An officer on the scene would consider such factors as weather, traffic conditions and

the severity of the crime before giving chase, and that person's supervisor could call off

the pursuit at any time if it is deemed unsafe, Roberts said.

Another example: procedures for handling evidence. "Inspectors go through the

evidence room to be sure we are keeping up with

everything," said Roberts.

The manual covers the department's role and responsibilities, its code of conduct,

communications, personnel, operations, management, legal procedures and support services.

With the procedures in place, Roberts said he called the Georgia Police

Accreditation Commission and asked for a dry run

assessment as a preliminary to applying for

accreditation. But when inspectors showed up in April, they found so little that needed

correction that they suggested using the dry run as

the full assessment.

"They only found a couple of areas that were so minor that we corrected them

while they were still here," said Roberts.

"We are extremely excited about it," he

told The Citizen Tuesday.

State accreditation is good for five years, Roberts said, but his department is not

sitting on its laurels. Officers already are working

to meet more than 300 standards of professionalism required for national accreditation.

"That's our next goal," said Roberts.

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