Department seeks to get accreditation

Boardman could become the first area law enforcement agency to earn accreditation.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- After three years of preparation, it's time to see if the township police department passes accreditation muster.
A team of assessors from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Inc., or CALEA, will be in town Saturday through Dec. 7 to evaluate every aspect of the department and determine whether it meets the standards of accreditation.
"When I was interviewing for the police chief's position, it was a mandate from the then-trustees that the new chief would get the department accredited," said Chief Jeffrey Patterson.
Long process
The assessment is the culmination of a three-year process.
The assessors, all police officials from other departments, will examine the department's conformance to 440 standards covering all aspects of policing.
Each of those 440 standards has a list of subcategories.
If it earns accreditation, Boardman would be the first Mahoning Valley police department to do so. There are 58 Ohio law enforcement agencies with the designation.
"It provides a framework for reevaluation of the whole operation from top to bottom," Patterson said. "It covers everything from administrative procedures to the way we do police work in the field. The structure is based on national standards."
The township has paid about $67,000 toward the accreditation process, including a contract with a consultant and the initial fees to pursue the standards, but the chief says that accredited departments generally see a 10 percent to 15 percent discount in liability insurance premiums.
That would mean a reduction of between $13,960 and $20,940 per year. Accredited departments also generally realize reductions in property/casualty insurance and worker's compensation costs, he said.
Benefits
But Patterson stresses that cost reductions aren't the most important benefits of accreditation.
"Most of the time, police departments address a crisis after it's already happened," he said. "With the accreditation process, you address those things ahead of time."
He and Dean Lysowski, the officer in charge of the accreditation process, believe going through all of the steps in pursuit of accreditation has made Boardman a better department.
"These are things we should have been spending money to do anyway," Patterson said.
Lysowski has sent several thick volumes of paperwork to CALEA in preparation of the assessment. Part of the process involves the department's demonstration that it has policies and procedures in place to address various situations involving overtime to evidence preservation.
Another portion is a physical display of the department's different units like the K-9 and crime scene for an evaluation by the assessors. The department conducted a mock display assessment this summer and Lysowski said the mock assessors gave high marks.
Public participation
The public is being asked to participate in another aspect of the process.
Township employees and the public can offer comment at a public information session set for 7 p.m. Dec. 5 at the township government center on Market Street. Members of the public who wish to provide input but can't attend the session may call (330) 729-2043 between 1 and 5 p.m. Dec. 5 to speak with assessors.
The department won't learn until March whether it earns accreditation.
CALEA can grant accreditation outright or with conditions or withhold it.
If granted accreditation, the designation continues for three years and the department must submit annual reports to the agency demonstrating continued compliance with standards.
It would have to request reaccreditation in three years.
Jaundiced eye
Both Patterson and Lysowski note that the whole department wasn't initially sold on the benefits.
"Early on, [some] were looking at it with kind of a jaundiced eye," Lysowski said.
That's part of the reason the chief put Lysowski, a 26-year department veteran, in charge. He didn't want a "pencil-pushing" civilian heading up the process.
"It has to come from someone who knows the job and someone who knows it other than from behind a desk," Patterson said.
After additional officers started to attend conferences on the process, Lysowski said he started to see more officers get behind the idea this summer.
"They started to see that this isn't something for the chief or for me," he said. "It's for them."