Department Earns CALEA Re-accreditation
The Valparaiso Police Department in 2010, for the first time, achieved accreditation through The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).
Every three years the department must be re-inspected and re-evaluated for it to maintain the CALEA accreditation. This past June the department was re-evaluated and recently Chief Brickner and the department learned that the Valparaiso Police Department had earned their accreditation for the second time.
In 2010 after the department’s first accreditation Police Chief Michael Brickner ex-plained the accreditation is not just a piece of paper, but rather means the department meets tough national standards on everything from how it uses deadly force, to whether it pursues a fleeing vehicle to how it recruits employees to make sure it gets the best police force. Brickner said the department, which he deemed already excellent before beginning the accreditation process, had to re-think every aspect of how it does business and is much stronger because of it, "One of our goals was to become one of the elite police de-partments ... one of the most professional and innovative," Brickner said. "It (accredita-tion) has elevated us to the level we wanted to get to."
In addition, departmental policies that fall in line with national guidelines should de-crease lawsuits or the department's exposure in lawsuits. "Once again, this is a wonderful accomplishment for our department," Chief Brickner said.