Dunbarton Police Department Becomes the Smallest Department in the Nation to Receive CALEA Recognition

"Congratulations to the Dunbarton Police Department on achieving CALEA Recognition the smallest agency in the nation to do so! I learned first hand, both as a local police chief and as a CALEA Commissioner, how the CALEA process promotes 'best practices' in an agency. The entire community benefits from this pursuit of excellence."

Stephen Monier
United States Marshal, New Hampshire District
CALEA Commission President (retired)

Introduction
The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) awarded the Dunbarton Police Department Recognition status at its recent Lexington, Kentucky conference. The Dunbarton Police Department is the smallest department in the nation to earn CALEA Recognition. This article will describe the process of CALEA accreditation generally and then discuss Dunbarton’s process specifically.

CALEA
CALEA was created in 1979 through the combined effort of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, National Sheriffs Association and the Police Executive Research Forum. CALEA’s purpose is to establish standards of professional excellence for police agencies through a process of self-assessment, on-site assessment, final hearing and re-accreditation. A brief discussion of each stage will follow.

Self-Assessment
Self-assessment begins with the creation of a high quality written directive system. The written directive system must be consistent with standards established by CALEA. The CALEA’s fourth edition of its Standards for Law Enforcement Agencies states, “the standards’ requirements provide a description of ‘what’ must be accomplished by the applicant agency but allows that agency wide latitude in determining ‘how’ it will achieve its compliance with each applicable standard.”

The standards cover the critical issues in major law enforcement areas, including:

Role, responsibility, and relationships with other agencies;
Organization, management, and administration;
Personnel administration;
Law enforcement operations, investigations, operational support, and traffic enforcement;
Prisoner and court related activities; and
Technical services

Once a department creates a quality written directive system it can focus on creating a folder for each applicable standard. The folders are designed to document proofs of compliance with each standard. CALEA has created software that enables a department to organize their accreditation folders. Each folder contains a copy of the applicable standard, an ISSR form, which identifies how the standard is met, and appropriate documentation.

Proofs of compliance are written directives, police reports, memoranda, photographs, statutes and various departmental forms. The proofs of compliance need to be clearly highlighted and organized, which are referred to as file maintenance. The intent of file maintenance is to facilitate the assessors review folders.

Mock On-Site
Most departments belong to regional associations such as the Northern New England Police Accreditation Coalition (NNEPAC). NNEPAC conducts monthly meetings, an annual conference, accreditation training, provides assessors and networking opportunities. Most Mock On-Sites are conducted by assessors from NNEPAC. The Mock On-Site essentially mirrors the actual On-Site, but it is designed to be high pressure to ensure as smooth an On-Site as possible.

On-Site
A department who requests an On-Site is prepared to welcome assessors from all over the country into their department. The assessors review the accreditation files, participate in tours of the department, speak with members of the department, facilitate a public hearing and follow up on their concerns with the department’s accreditation team. The On-Site ends with a de-briefing by the assessor team and the department’s accreditation team. The head assessor will submit a Final Report with their recommendations to the Commission based on the On-Site.

Final Report
The Final Report essentially identifies what the assessors found at the On-Site. Two areas of concern in each report are the File Maintenance and Applied Discretion chapters. The File Maintenance chapter speaks to the organization and quality of the department’s accreditation files. The Applied Discretion chapter includes problems areas discovered at the On-Site by the assessor team. Some of the problems may be resolved at the On-Site, however, some may need time to resolve after the assessors have completed the On-Site. In the end the Commission will want to ensure each Applied Discretion has been successfully resolved. The Final Report is submitted to the Commission and a Final Hearing is scheduled at an up coming CALEA conference.

Final Hearing
The Final Hearing occurs at a CALEA conference. At the hearing the candidate agency presents information and answers the inquiries of a sub-committee of CALEA Commissioners. Most inquiries involve the File Maintenance and Applied Discretions identified in the agency’s Final Report. However, the sub-committee may ask more broad questions. If the candidate agency adequately addresses the sub-committees’ concerns then the sub-committee creates and introduces a motion before the full Commission to award the accreditation status.

Re-Accreditation
Accreditation status is awarded for a three year period. Accredited agencies will need to under go the accreditation process every three years to maintain their accreditation status.

CALEA Accreditation in New Hampshire
Three city police departments, Dover, Manchester, and Nashua have attained full accreditation and reaccreditation, along with the towns of Durham, Goffstown, and Hudson. The Lincoln, Londonderry and the University Of New Hampshire Police Departments have also attained national CALEA Recognition.

Dunbarton and its Police
Dunbarton is a community comprised of 31.4 square miles with a population of approximately 2,650. The three member Board of Selectmen lead a Town Meeting form of government. The Dunbarton Police Department is comprised of two full time officers, a part time office administrator, five part time officers, three auxiliary (volunteer) officers
and a chaplain.

Part Time Officer Standards
The Dunbarton Police Department is the second New Hampshire department to be awarded national Recognition status with part time officers. Several standards speak to part time officer training, however, there is no clear guidance beyond part time officers receiving “like” training to full time officers. This is a challenge for New Hampshire departments because New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council has a difference curriculum for part time officers. Part time officers must complete a 110 hour academy while full time officers must complete a 488 hour academy to become certified.

However, now that the Dunbarton Police Department has met these standards it paves the way for other New Hampshire departments who utilize part time officers to participate in the accreditation process. Essentially, a department can meet the standards by three means. First, a department can conduct enhanced training for their part time officers so that they receive similar training as full time officers. Second, a department can limit a part time officer’s functions through written directives. Third, a department can both limit a part time officer’s function and complete enhanced training in specific areas. This process begins with a Job Task Analysis.

The Dunbarton Police Department administered a Job Task Analysis that identified 501 functions officers perform. Once the analysis was completed the department decided to build a curriculum of enhanced training to add to the core training part time officers receive at the part time officer academy. Dunbarton’s curriculum included an additional 160 hours of training in specific high liability areas such as driving and firearms.

An example of limiting function involves Felony investigations. Dunbarton’s written directive regarding investigations clearly requires part time officers to be directly supervised by a supervisor when performing any Felony investigation.

Dunbarton created a simple document that identified for the assessors each of the 501 functions from the Job Task Analysis and whether they conducted enhanced training, limited part time officer’s function or a combination of both to address each function. This documentation is contained in twenty-three ring binders. When faced with such a daunting task some may ask what the benefits are to pursuing accreditation.

If anyone has any questions or comments regarding accreditation we would be glad to address them.