OXFORD, Miss. – After meeting more than 120 standards and multiple on-site assessments over the past 18 months, the University of Mississippi Police Department has received accreditation from the Mississippi Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission.
Officer Kendall Brown, UPD accreditation manager, has overseen the process since May 2011 and will travel with UPD Associate Director Ray Hawkins to Charleston, S.C., later this month to accept recognition from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.“By becoming accredited, we are following very high standards set forth by a objective governing board that will only make things easier from an administrative standpoint,” Brown said. “It builds community confidence in our officers and staff members because we’re using correct law enforcement practices.”
Chief Calvin Sellers says that in order to more accurately align with the national accreditation process, state accreditation has recently undergone big changes. Departments must prove that they are consistently meeting these standards, making accreditation more difficult to achieve than before.
“Accreditation was important in order for UPD to establish ourselves as a professional police department,” Sellers said.
Typically, becoming an accredited department takes about three years, but Brown and UPD completed the process in 18 months. During that time, the 48-member department was expected to meet 123 standards dictated by the commission. From the budget to uniforms, training to evidence collection and storage, the standards run the gamut of all possible policies and procedures.
Following mock on-site assessments in August 2012, the department was given a full on-site assessment in early December, when UPD officials were required to prove all standards and improve upon all deficiencies found during the mock assessment. The department was awarded full accreditation later that month.
“I can’t say enough about the job that Kendall did with this accreditation process,” Sellers said. “He took it and ran with it in addition to carrying out his other duties within the department. I am really impressed with his work.”
While Brown and Sellers say they are pleased that the department received accreditation, Brown’s work is not yet complete. He will begin work soon on national accreditation, another three-year process of nearly 400 standards.
“The department continues to strive to get better each and every day and becoming nationally accredited is the next step,” Brown said.