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Spring Twp. Police Earn Accreditation: Chief Michael S. Messner Says the Recognition By the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association is a Way of Gaining Professionalism and Accountability.

Posted on: Monday, 17 April 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Steven Henshaw, Reading Eagle, Pa.

Apr. 17--The Spring Township Police Department has attained a distinction shared by few other police agencies in Pennsylvania.

The department recently was recognized as an accredited police agency by the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.

Only 36 police agencies in Pennsylvania and one other in Berks County share that distinction.

Muhlenberg Township police in 2004 became the first municipal police department in Berks to be accredited by the association.

Spring Chief Michael S. Messner said gaining the accreditation was a goal he set for the department when he became chief in December 2001.

"It's a way of bringing professionalism and accountability to the police department," he said.

Messner said it took four years and a lot of policy reviews and revisions to meet the standards for accreditation.

For example, the department had to implement prisoner-transport policies and a suicide-prevention policy for its prisoner holding cell.

The main benefit of the accreditation is being recognized as an organization that has reached a high standard accepted across the state, said Richard E. Hammon, accreditation program coordinator with the chiefs association.

Accreditation normally is associated with colleges and surgeons.

"Although it's a little bit foreign for people to hear 'accreditation' in law enforcement, it's the same theory: Let's try to provide the best service we can with the knowledge we have," Hammon said.

The accreditation decal will be proudly displayed on all squad cars, Messner said.

"It does make a difference because there's a sense of pride in that officers can say they work for an accredited police department," he said.

There also are potential financial benefits as well, Hammon said. Insurance costs can be lowered because some insurers offer 5 percent to 10 percent discounts in premiums, he said.

More than 225 agencies in Pennsylvania have enrolled in the accreditation process.

Other accredited departments in the region include Douglass, Upper Merion and Lower Salford townships in Montgomery County and Warwick Township in Chester County.

State police are accredited, and the largest accredited municipal department is Allentown, with about 250 police officers, Hammon said. The smallest is the borough of Northern Cambria in Cambria County, with a six-member force.

Size doesn't matter, Hammon said.

"This program was built specially for Pennsylvania law enforcement in the hopes that small agencies would get involved," said Hammon, adding that about 80 percent of the more than 1,200 police agencies in the state have fewer than 10 members.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Reading Eagle, Pa.

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Source: Reading Eagle

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