Coldwater Police receive professional accreditation
COLDWATER — Coldwater Police Department officially received accreditation from Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission on Monday night before the city council.
Executive Director Bob Stevens of MLEAC said of 586 police agencies in Michigan, Coldwater Police is only the 48th to meet the strict professional standards, now among the top 10%.
"You should be very, very proud of that," Stevens said. "I think everybody recognizes the last several years have not been easy for law enforcement since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. There's been much backlash against police departments and demonization of police agencies and calls for so-called police reforms."
Public Safety Director Joe Scheid said in September 2019, when he was named director, he told the city manager he wanted to take the department toward accreditation. Scheid credited deputy chief Patrick Beeman for moving the process forward.
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Neil Rossow, a 38-year career police officer with MLEAC, told the council, "The Accreditation Commission creates a set of standards that we feel our best practices for Michigan law enforcement."
There are 108 standards; within those, each department must complete 450 to 460 tasks.
"The standard says that they have to do something. The written directive has to say that they're going to follow the standard. And then they have to create proofs," Rossow explained.
The department met its goal of accreditation by Oct. 1. The first step began with writing an entirely new policy and procedure book updating all of the department's policies.
Rossow highly praised the department's efforts. During the August in-person review, there was only one correction the agency required. "Which in our world, for the first time at an agency is a really big deal. That meant they only had to correct one thing out of the 450 or 460 things they had to do. It's a heck of an accomplishment."
MLEAC told the council the process only now begins. The department must provide proof that it follows the standards over the next three years. The program requires re-accreditation again in 2025.
Accreditation Coldwater Police go through accreditation process
Stevens reads from the large certificate presented to the department. "We voluntarily comply with the standards established by the Michigan law enforcement Accreditation Commission, deemed essential for the delivery of professional police services and the protection of their community."
Scheid told the council, "From really top to bottom, it's been a whole agency effort. There's been a couple of people who have played a bigger role, but everybody bought into it. And without everybody buying into this, it would never get accomplished. So I just want to thank everybody and the police department."
— Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DReidTDR
This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Coldwater Police receive professional accreditation
