FH Moving Toward Police Accreditation

The Fair Haven Police Department is on its way to becoming accredited.

The Borough Council last night approved a resolution to award a contract for $34,000 to The Rodgers Group, LLC, of Island Heights, to facilitate the process.

The consultant group’s proposal was reviewed by Police Chief Darryl Breckenridge and Borough Attorney Salvatore Alfieri and “found to be acceptable,” according to the resolution.

Once the process, described as a long, arduous and intricate one, begins, “it should take about a year to complete,” Mayor Ben Lucarelli said.

“What accreditation does is to establish the highest standards for policies and procedures in a police department. Statistics show that there are many benefits to being an accredited department. It raises the standards and training of officers, making our officers the absolute best, and serves as a protective measure. Typically, it is very difficult for a plaintiff to prevail in any legal action against a municipality.”

Having the accreditation distinction means that a police department’s training and procedural standards are known to be of the highest caliber, in line with those set by the Chiefs of Police Association of NJ. It says, in essence, that the accredited department employs the highest of state and national standards, and the officers follow and account for them.

"Accreditation status represents a significant professional achievement," according to the Chiefs of Police Association of NJ Web site. "Accreditation acknowledges the implementation of policies and procedures that are conceptually sound and operationally effective."

In addition to the prestige and protective measures afforded to an accredited department, the status saves the borough money through insurance and other associated discounts, Chief Breckenridge had said.

The cost, Administrator Theresa Casagrande had said, is in line with the borough's budget. It does not affect the police department’s overtime budget, she explained in October, when the subject was first broached. The department could undertake the endeavor on its own, Casagrande had said, but that would cut into its overtime budget, making it more costly and lopping off manpower for the duration.

The administrator explained that $10,000 was moved from overtime to training (under which the accreditation project would be covered), where there was already $14,000. There is also another $1,500 available from a grant source.