At the September meeting of the Police Officer Standards Training Council (POSTC), the board unanimously approved the Trumbull Police Department for its first ever Tier One State Accreditation. This is a significant accomplishment, as it required years of work to attain Accreditation- a highly prized recognition of law enforcement professional excellence.
This section of the POSTC Professional Accreditation Program Standards Manual serves as the first stage of the three (3) tiered system. It required that the Trumbull Police Department meet “standards” regarding law enforcement practices as they relate to areas such as liability, safety, ethics, and training to help ensure the highest quality of service to the public.
Accreditation is a program designed to evaluate, measure, and update an organization to commonly accepted professional standards for law enforcement agencies. Professional Standards are specific requirements which must be met by an organization and its members, through recognition of, and compliance with, written directives, policies, procedures and practices designed to support desirable professional objectives. The State Accreditation is a process through which these agencies demonstrate excellence in management and service delivery by complying with state accreditation standards. It seeks to raise the level of professionalism for Connecticut Law Enforcement agencies. There are three (3) tiers of these standards which are described as; Liability, Professional, and General Management. Tier I is referred to as “Liability Accreditation” which focuses on civil and criminal liability, and consists of 143 standards.
The assessment team is composed of ranking police practitioners from the Connecticut law enforcement community. The process includes the team of assessors from the Police Officers Standards and Training Council who reviewed application documents and visited the Trumbull Police Department on July 20, 2020 for the inspection. This began with the examination of records to include the Department’s 103 policies and procedures as they relate to Tier I of the state accreditation standards. The assessors also reviewed various other written materials and documents, interviewed officers and staff, and inspected the entire facility to ascertain compliance.
Verification was made by the team that the Trumbull Police Department met the POST Council’s state-of-the-art accreditation standards, which is part of a voluntary process to gain accreditation. Once the POST Council accreditation assessors completed their review of the agency, they reported back to the POST Council Accreditation committee, who recommended to the POST Council on September 10, 2020 that the agency is eligible to be accredited. The Accreditation term is three years, during which time the agency must submit annual reports attesting to the continued compliance with those standards under which they were initially accredited or re-accredited.
The Accreditation Manager for Trumbull Police is Lieutenant Douglas Smith, who was assigned to the Professional Standards office for several years while coordinating the Accreditation process. During this lengthy process, the department had to develop and implement many new policies, modify some existing practices, and institute a variety of new procedures for their operations. Lt. Smith also facilitated the implementation of a new software application for the Department with the purchase of “PowerDMS,” which allows personnel to create, edit and electronically distribute to each member of the Department polices and training documents for review and verification. Compliance with those policies during the day-to-day operations of the department had to then be demonstrated to meet the volume of standards established by the State of Connecticut Police Academy.
The POST Academy has obtained Public Safety Training Academy Accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Inc. (CALEA), a nationally recognized law enforcement organization. The Trumbull Police Department is currently working toward attaining the second tier of the accreditation process which includes eighty-three (83) additional standards.
Trumbull Police Chief Michael Lombardo said, “This is a great accomplishment for the men and women of the Trumbull Police Department and the residents of Trumbull. Attaining Tier One accreditation status is no easy feat. Standards must be met but proof of utilizing them is required also. We look forward to accomplishing Tier Two accreditation in the future.”
A copy of the state accreditation standards manual is available at the POSTC website located here: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/POST/ACCREDITATION/
The Accreditation Manager for Trumbull Police, Lt. Douglas Smith, can be reached at (203) 261-3665 x3244, or dsmith@trumbull-ct.gov.
For more information regarding the POST Council accreditation program you may write to William Tanner, State Accreditation Program Manager, 285 Preston Ave. Meriden, Connecticut 06450, by telephone at 203-427-2602, by fax at 203-238-6643 or visit the Police Officer Standards and Training Council / Accreditation Division website at http://www.ct.gov/post