Craig Webre

The motto of the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office is, "We will do whatever it takes to properly serve the public." As sheriff of Lafourche Parish for over 20 years, I remain committed to the public that our deputies will serve with the highest levels of professionalism, integrity, and accountability regardless of the task at hand. Embracing CALEA Standards has not only made it easier for deputies to maintain this level of service, but to do so with fairness and consistency throughout the agency. Read on.   

CALEA Accreditation is a blueprint for an organization with the desire to operate by the best practices for public safety agencies. Since CALEA began awarding law enforcement accreditation, sheriff's offices have participated in the CALEA Accreditation process; the model can be used by any type, size, or geographical location of law enforcement agency. Currently there are 107 sheriff's departments accredited and 32 in self-assessment. Read on.        

Sergeant Fred M. Neiman

Accreditation Manager

On a cross country flight returning from a conference, sheriff's administrators discussed a presentation they had attended describing a newly formed law enforcement accreditation commission. CALEA®, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, was promoting a voluntary compliance program with a goal of standardizing law enforcement best practices and improving service delivery based on industry standards. The participants in this conversation agreed, it seemed a worthy endeavor. Read on.

Based on CALEA's corporate bylaws, the executive directors of CALEA's founding organizations, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), National Sheriffs' Association (NSA), National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), and Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), recently met to appoint and reappoint CALEA Commissioners. Commissioners Stephen DeBenedittis, Linda Pillo and J. Grayson Robinson will leave the CALEA Board at the end of 2014.

The newly appointed Commissioners are Stavros S. Anthony, Ph.D., Las Vegas, Nevada City Councilman; Douglas L. Knight, Chief of Police, Vandalia, Ohio; and Garry Lucas, Sheriff, Clark County, Washington.

In addition to the usual CALEA process and programming related workshops that are presented at each conference, CALEA is working to provide meaningful training to support client agencies and to ensure we complement standards related issues. To that end, CALEA is please to offer the following workshops at the Fall 2014 CALEA Conference:  

• Department of Justice Equitable Sharing Program
• Traumas in Law Enforcement
• Re-Entry of Law Enforcement Staff following Military Deployment - the Military Perspective  Read on.  

The CALEA® Gold Standard Assessment for Public Safety Communications Agencies


Zeta Fail

In 2011, CALEA introduced a new methodology for assessing agencies seeking reaccreditation. Known as the Gold Standard Assessment (GSA), this voluntary assessment format focuses primarily on processes and outcomes associated with standards specific to agencies policies. In short, it works to measure the impact of accreditation as opposed to simply confirming compliance through a file-by-file review. What follows are first-hand accounts of GSA assessments from two communications accreditation managers. Read on.    

Reminder for Perspective CALEA Client Agencies - CASP

The Northern New England Police Accreditation Coalition (NNEPAC) recently voted to officially extend full membership to all Massachusetts law enforcement agencies, public safety communications centers, training academies, and campus security agencies. NNEPAC participation was already open to agencies in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. For meeting information, visit http://www.nnepac.com/.