Redding Police Department Earns State Accreditation

The Redding Police Department was awarded State Accreditation by the Police Officers Standards and Training (POST) Council on Thursday.

State accreditation is a process through which law enforcement agencies demonstrate excellence in management and service delivery by complying with state accreditation standards. This is a no-cost, voluntary, self-directed process accessible to all Connecticut departments regardless of size or resources.

The Connecticut Law Enforcement Accreditation Program consists of 124 standards.

The State Accreditation program is designed to assist Connecticut law enforcement agencies to operate efficiently and uniformly to reduce exposure to civil liability and provide excellent management and service delivery.

Specifically, the selected standards allow agencies to meet the following goals:

(1) Strengthen crime prevention and control capabilities;
(2) Formalize essential management procedures;
(3) Establish fair and nondiscriminatory personnel practices; (4) Improve service delivery;
(5) Solidify interagency cooperation and coordination; and (6) Boost citizen and staff confidence in the police agency.

The State Accreditation Standards for Local Police Agencies Program is managed by the Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council (POST Council). The members of the Council are a public board appointed by the Governor and include federal, state and local law enforcement managers along with public members. An Accreditation Manager will guide applicant police departments through the accreditation process and will also coordinate the process and activities on behalf of the POST Council.

The Accreditation Process

Participation in the accreditation program is voluntary, and the POST Council discourages actions on the part of any person, group, or association to mandate law enforcement agency accreditation. Law Enforcement Agencies may seek accreditation or not, as they wish. Once an agency begins the accreditation process, it may withdraw at any time without prejudice.

The POST Council has established and maintains accreditation standards for law enforcement agencies that consider all administrative, management, and service delivery aspects of the organization. The standards, in striving to promote the best professional practices, prescribe “what” agencies should be doing, but not “how” they should be doing it. Law Enforcement Agencies and other interested organizations and individuals may obtain the publication, Standards for Law Enforcement Agencies from POST Council staff.