Accreditation
The Program
Accreditation is a status of achievement awarded to a police agency which is able to prove that it complies in both policy and practice with 110 different professional standards.
The Barnegat Police Department became one of two accredited departments in Ocean County in May of 2008 when the final report of compliance was accepted and approved by the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police.
Not satisfied with completing State Accreditation, the department has begun pursuit of full national accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. To gain national accreditation status under the CALEA program, the department will have to prove compliance with over 450 professional standards in the areas of organizational management and administration, personnel administration, law enforcement operations, operational support, traffic law enforcement, prisoner and court services, and auxiliary and technical services.
The difficulty in achieving national accreditation is evidenced by some simple statistics. Of the nearly 420 police departments in the state, only 7 are accredited nationally through CALEA. Additionally, there is not one nationally accredited department in either Ocean or Atlantic counties.
Staffing
While accreditation can only be achieved with the support and effort of the entire agency, the task of project management including the jobs of developing the policies and compiling the thousands of proofs necessary to successfully complete the program falls on the Accreditation Unit, a team of three officers within the Administrative Services Division.
Officer Sarah Girgenti, Sergeant Gary Larussa, and Lieutenant Keith Germain have labored for over three years on the accreditation program, and have helped Barnegat become a leader in the accreditation community by becoming the first department in the state to earn accredited status under the new 2nd edition of standards.
While accreditation is a primary workload for the team, each officer has multiple responsibilities outside of the unit including the department training program, supervision of the Traffic Safety Unit, grant writing, and management of our access to the state criminal justice computer system.
What are the Benefits of Accreditation?
Accountability:
CALEA standards give the Chief of Police a proven management system of written directives, sound training, clearly defined lines of authority, and routine reports that support decision-making and resource allocation.
Reduced Risk and Liability Exposure:Barnegat Township receives a reduction in liability insurance fees because of the department’s accredited status.
