WINSLOW — Law enforcement agencies across Maine are pursuing accreditation, proof that a department is meeting high professional standards and using up-to-date policies.

Deputy Chief Randy Wing of the Winslow Police Department stood in front of the room at Winslow Public Library May 12 and accepted an award for completing the Maine Law Enforcement Accreditation Program. The program, administered by the Maine Chiefs of Police Association, takes up to two years to complete and has a three-year cycle.

Currently, 46 law enforcement agencies are in the program — 29 accredited — making up around 35% of all municipal police and sheriffs’ departments in Maine. Rising participation in the program reflects a desire by many departments to improve standards and increase credibility within their communities.

When residents see that their police department has gone through the effort to get accredited, it builds an extra layer of trust that the department uses approved policies, facilities and day-to-day operations that keep residents safe.

The accreditation program relies on statewide standards, said Jim Willis, program coordinator at Dirigo Safety, LLC, an Auburn-based public safety company that administers the program for the Maine Chiefs of Police Association.

“Our standards are designed to make sure that police departments that are using the program are meeting the minimum requirements for what the Maine Chiefs of Police Association thinks are necessary to be running a police department,” Willis said.

Wing said his department became more effective and transparent through the accreditation process.

“You’re responsible to make sure that your records are current, up-to-date, stored properly and in accordance with law,” Wing said. “It’s just such a wide facet of things that they look at. They look at everything during your day-to-day operations, and basically, the goal is that you’re building credibility with the community: Showing that your agency is transparent and among the very best in law enforcement.”

How does it work?

Applications to the program are overseen by a committee of police chiefs, state agency leaders and sheriffs. Once a department is accepted to the program, it must complete the policy and procedural process within two years.

Willis said agencies approach accreditation in different ways.

“Some agencies develop their own policy content,” Willis said. “Some agencies purchase policy templates from a private company, some agencies build their own assessments, and other agencies hire a company to build it for them. And that’s perfectly acceptable.”

Policies must be updated to meet 12 chapters of standards relating to administration, training, personnel, use of force, information storage and more. Wing said assessors inspect everything from day-to-day operations to how records are stored.

“One of the major undertakings is that you evaluate and adopt all new standard policies: The current, latest, greatest, administrative and standard operating procedure-type policies,” Wing said. “I believe there’s probably 147 of them. You’re updating all of your policies.”

Assessors track a department’s progress on updating policies remotely, but Willis said the organization also completes in-person assessments of facilities, personnel and organization of evidence. Willis said departments are often required to do a full inventory of the evidence room before assessors come to inspect.

“Say, if there’s a change in leadership at the agency, like a new chief, we require you to do a complete inventory of your whole evidence room, and we would need to see a record of that,” Willis said. “On top of that, on the day of what we call our ‘on-site’ when the assessors are at a police department, part of our inspection is we do really say: ‘Open the evidence room and show us these three pieces of evidence, please.'”

The accreditation process culminates in an award of certification that lasts for three years, but departments continue to work closely with assessors to remain in compliance during that time. Five agencies in Maine have gone through the program more than once to become reaccredited, while others are looking to apply for the first time.

Trending toward transparency

The Winslow and Augusta police departments are two of the accredited departments in central Maine, but other local departments are interested in joining the program. Chief William Bonney of Waterville Police Department said his department, which juggles a high call volume and short staff, plans to apply as soon as possible.

“We received a grant to start that process, and it’s a long process that we’re very interested in completing,” Bonney said. “It shows, I think, our interest in participating in best practice policing. And so it’s our plan to move forward with that in the very near future, and one of the nice things about that is it saves a little bit of money on our insurance when we get accredited.”

The Risk Management Services department at the Maine Municipal Association offers a 25% discount on police professional liability coverage to accredited agencies in their property and casualty pool, benefitting both departments and taxpayers.

The department also awards $5,000 grants to agencies pursuing accreditation. The funds are used to update policies and contract with third-party companies, Dan Whittier, loss control manager at the department, said over email.

“We have committed funding of $200,000 to support this effort,” Whittier wrote. “We administer a grant that helps agencies contract with third-party vendors to work toward accreditation. Since the grant’s inception in 2021, we have awarded 32 grants to our members. Of those 32, 18 agencies have become accredited, with the remaining 14 still in progress.”

The association’s Property and Casualty Pool Law Enforcement grant has funding to support eight more agencies to become certified, Whittier said.

Wing said the accreditation process took Winslow’s department more than a year to complete and required all hands on deck.

“This has been achieved even when we were short-handed,” Wing said. “So hats off to our employees that have taken the extra steps and completed review — every policy that we implemented and updated, they had to be reviewed and signed off by the employees. They also had to undertake additional online trainings, which they completed as well. So it’s a major accomplishment for any department, but hats off to our troops that helped us achieve this while we were short-handed.”