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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

WBPD, NHCSO earn CALEA accreditation

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A national organization has certified the Wrightsville Beach Police Department and New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office  for meeting some of the toughest standards in law enforcement. Describing itself as the Gold Standard in Public Safety, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) certified the departments during a July 25 ceremony in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The CALEA accreditation is a set of standards governing public safety organizations.

For more than two years, the WBPD has worked to achieve a higher level of professionalism through writing new policy and compiling 483 compliance standards.

Police Chief Dan House said it elevates his department’s professionalism and also improves public perception of the department by creating transparency and consistency.

“There’s the mood of the country against law enforcement right now — and we know it’s a small minority that’s having the real issues, most people support law enforcement — but it’s our goal to strive to be as transparent as we can,” he said during a July 27 phone interview.

The process of earning the CALEA designation involved 18 months of writing a new policy manual detailing correct procedures for various situations officers might encounter. The guidelines are especially important in extreme events like pursuing a suspect or using force, House said.

“[It] not only shows that we’re trying to do the right thing, but it also shields us from liability…not that we won’t have some liability, we will,” he said. “But [in a situation where] it was perfectly justified but it doesn’t look good … because I don’t care how you use it, force looks bad … that’s where we can say we have internationally accepted policies and procedures and practices in place and we followed every one.”

Having consistent standards in place also helps when officers respond to situations outside of their jurisdiction, Capt. P. Burdette said earlier this year. The Wilmington Police Department is CALEA accredited and the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department received its accreditation the same day as Wrightsville Beach. New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon traveled to Colorado to receive the accolade.

“I am so excited,” he said. “What a way for us to hold ourselves accountable to nationally accepted law enforcement practices.”

“Geographically speaking, we are all so close,” Burdette said. “If we all subscribe to the same policies and practices, should a major situation go down and we have to go in and help out another jurisdiction, it provides a seamless transition.”

The agencies’ policies are consistent but not identical, Burdette added.

“CALEA doesn’t tell you how to do something, they just tell you what needs to be done,” he said. “It has to be tailored to the specific region, agency and population.”

Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Lt. J. Brewer said even if the agencies aren’t following identical procedures they have the same standards.

“It’s good to know that those agencies … are willing to not only say that we’re professionals, but to go further than that and say we’re willing to meet this international and national level of expectations,” he said.

In Colorado Springs, House, Burdette and WBPD operations and accreditation manager Diana Zuenen met with four of the CALEA commissioners to receive feedback. They only had to answer a few lingering questions because CALEA representatives had already performed an extensive onsite evaluation of the WBPD in February.

“He asked me about Chat with the Chief,” said House of his quarterly Q-and-A sessions with the public. “We talked about the challenges of having limited resources and still dealing with the expectations of the community.”

House said he told the CALEA representatives about cutting items in his budget this year to add an extra officer position. The commission was pleased, he said.

“They said normally for a first-time accreditation there are a lot of issues they have to fix, and they couldn’t find anything for us to fix,” he said. “We weren’t perfect, don’t get me wrong, but they were very impressed.”

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