l to r: Captain Gerald Maloni, Captain Jennifer Ford,
Chief Tom Ogden (Chief of Police at Carnegie Mellon University)
and Peters Township Chief of Police Douglas Grimes
AMONG THE ELITE
The Peters Township Police Department earns
Accreditation—one of the few departments across
the Commonwealth to do so.
T
BY NICOLE TAFE
he Peters Township Police Department
has recently earned Accreditation from the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and can
count themselves among a small number of
departments to attain the important status.
The Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police
Association introduced the Pennsylvania
Law Enforcement Accreditation Program
to the Commonwealth in July 2001. Since
then, over 300 agencies have enrolled
and 117 agencies currently have attained
accredited status.
Accreditation is a progressive and
time-proven way of helping institutions
evaluate and improve their overall performance by striving for
standards that contain a clear statement of professional objectives.
Participating administrators conduct a thorough analysis to
determine how existing operations can be adapted to meet
these objectives. When the procedures are in place, a team of
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independent professionals is assigned to verify that all applicable
standards have been successfully implemented. The process
culminates with a decision by an authoritative body that the
institution is worthy of accreditation.
“The process entails a complete review, and in our case,
a complete re-write of all department policies and procedures,”
says Douglas Grimes, Peters Township Chief of Police. “We also
made multiple changes to the facility, and equipment used by the
Peters Township Police Department. These changes are based
on standards established by the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement
Accreditation Commission (PLEAC).”
There are three phases of accreditation—Application, Self-
Assessment and Formal Assessment. Every policy and procedure,
equipment and facilities that involves staff and administration was
put under review. Once completed, there was a mock assessment
by inspectors who identified potential shortcomings and flaws.
Following corrective action of any shortcomings or flaws, a full
inspection was performed by a panel of three inspectors from the
other side of the state who are unfamiliar with the PTPD.