Pulaski P.D. successfully completes fifth re-accreditation

Mike Williams/The Patriot

Pulaski Police Chief Jill Niece (far left) and several of her officers display the Certificate of Accreditation presented to the department during Tuesday’s meeting of Town Council.

By MIKE WILLIAMS

The Patriot

The Pulaski Police Department has successfully completed its fifth re-accreditation process.

Wytheville Police Chief Joel Hash, who is also a commissioner on the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission, presented the fifth Certificate of Accreditation to the department during Tuesday night’s meeting of Town Council.

“I am here to recognize Chief Jill Neice and the members of the Pulaski Police Department for their commitment to law enforcement excellence as evidenced by their successful completion of their fifth re-accreditation process through the Virginia Law Enforcement Accreditation Program,” Hash said.

“All accreditation programs are designed to evaluate and confirm the compliance of an organization with the recognized standards and profession in which they belong. In the case of a law enforcement agency, it is one openly transparent means by which citizens and government leaders can be assured that your police department is maintaining ethical standards and benchmarks of their performance, which the community has a right to expect.

“Your community’s law enforcement agency had previously made the commitment to pursue the goal of attaining state accreditation. This process involves bringing the administrative, operational, training and personnel policies and practice of the department into compliance with the 190 Professional Standards of the commission each year for a total of four years.

“The awarding of accreditation to a law enforcement agency is indefinitely more than a paper exercise. An agency must first develop the policies and procedures that comply with commission standards. But what is more important it must put those policy statements into practice and prove over a period of years that the agency follows those standards.

“The attainment of accreditation by a law enforcement agency has many advantages. Among these it instills confidence in the public that the law enforcement agency it serves complies with the established professional benchmarks. Secondly, the process assures officials that the law enforcement agency they oversee is in compliance with established state of the art policies, procedures and practices.”

While Hash presented the accreditation certificate to Neice, she handed it to Lt. Michael Parmelee, Accreditation Manager for the department.

“I’d actually like to let Lieutenant Parmelee hold this. Really it should be presented to him,” Neice stated.

Pulaski is one of only 101 law enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth to be accredited. The department was first accredited in 2006.