Department earns accreditation by meeting hundreds of standards

By MIKE JAMES
The Independent

ASHLAND May 13, 2008 11:13 pm

— While it was applauding individual police officers Tuesday, the Ashland Police Department accepted a department wide distinction: accreditation through the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police.
The voluntary accreditation comes following a rigorous 18-month process of meeting and documenting standards.
To earn the accreditation, the department had to meet 150 primary standards and several hundred subsidiary standards, said Capt. Don Petrella, who managed the process.
“We had to do a complete review and rewriting of all rules and regulations,” Petrella said.
Also necessary were some physical changes to the building to enhance security and changes in the property system, he said. Overall, the changes and the resulting accreditation will make the department more professional and decrease its liability exposure, Petrella said.
Already, the city’s insurance carrier has notified the department it is entitled to an $18,000 per year discount on its premiums, he said. “That’s comparable to the price of a new police car.”
Only 75 of Kentucky’s 485 police agencies have earned the accreditation and few of them are in the eastern part of the state, Petrella said.
“They did an excellent job,” said Michael Bischoff, executive director of the association. One of the toughest problems to solve was meeting the standards in the aging building that houses both the police department and other city offices, he said.
The department developed innovative ways to adapt in its current quarters, he said.
The accreditation is valid for five years and is renewable.