YPD earns state certification

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The city police department has received its final certification for meeting state standards for training and police practices.

The department was recently awarded the certification from the Ohio Collaborative Community Police Advisory Board.

The advisory board resulted from a task force established by Gov. John Kasich in 2014. The standards are intended to instill greater public confidence in Ohio’s police departments.

The department was certified for its policies in use of force, recruitment and hiring, community engagement and telecommunicator training.

Chief Robin Lees said the department had already met or exceeded several of the standards for police departments set by the state attorney general’s office, so it did not take long for the department to earn the certification.

Lees credited the department’s training regimen for being able to meet those standards so quickly.

“We did not have to do much,” Lees said. “Through our regular in-service training, we exceeded most of the criteria,” Lees said.