The Ferguson Township Police Department recently received accreditation by the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Program of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.
Departments can operate without the accreditation, and many do. Only about 10 percent of the state’s approximately 1,100 police departments hold the recognition.
The accreditation means that an independent group has evaluated the department and found its policies and practices to be in compliance with recommended best practices and standards. According to the township, the program requires a department to adopt more than 100 policies that meet or exceed standards.
‘The most critical policy areas affected are the use of force, limits of authority, prisoner transportation, prisoner detention, and handling of evidence, along with a host of best practices for operating a municipal law enforcement agency in Pennsylvania,’ according to the township.
Ferguson Township joins the Centre Region’s other two municipal police departments — State College and Patton Township — in achieving the accreditation. Penn State University Police has accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.
Now retired Chief of Police Diane Conrad led the effort and the department had adopted all of the policies needed to meet the standards. In February, the department’s accreditation team had organized 120 of the 500 documents needed to prove compliance. With an application through the Centre County Board of Commissioners to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the department received a state grant to fund the remaining work and the assistance of a consultant.
The re-accreditation process occurs every three years.
The certificate of accreditation state:
‘To All Who See This, Know That The Ferguson Township Police Department, having fulfilled the necessary qualifications and mandatory requirements of the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Program of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association by voluntarily complying with the provisions of a professional law enforcement accreditation program by means of achieving and demonstrating the highest acknowledged standards as required by the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission is hereby recommended and approved and authorized to receive this Certificate of Law Enforcement Accreditation.’
