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Amesbury - The Amesbury Police Department is on the doorstep of getting re-certified by the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Coalition. “There are some minor fixes that need to be done,” said Glenn Chaput, the department’s accreditation officer. “But we are going to be recommended for re-accreditation on March 6.” If approved, this will be the second time Amesbury’s police department has been re-certified since its initial accreditation in 2003. The department was the third to be initially honored in this manner by the state. Re-accreditation is done every three years. “The three assessors we had were very impressed with the policies and procedures we had in place,” Chaput added. “I’m very relieved it’s done.” Accreditation is a self-initiated process by which police departments strive to meet and maintain standards that have been established for the profession. The assessors are fellow police professionals. There is a set of 252 mandatory standards and 123 optional standards that reflect critical areas of police management, operations and technical support activities, including policies and procedures. As a smaller department, Amesbury had to meet all mandatory standards and 60 percent of the optional standards. Among the areas scrutinized are police station records, vehicles, personnel training, the use of weapons and station security. The department actually met about 85 percent of the optional standards, Chaput said. It can also expect a review in about a year-and-a-half. Although the evaluation is done, Chaput still has to keep up with the department’s written policy and procedure manual, a mammoth document. In preparation for the assessors’ visit, he wrote an additional 10 policies to comply with changing laws and the fifth edition of standards set by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA).
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