Lynchburg Police

The City of Lynchburg Police Department became just the 124^th law enforcement agency in the country to receive its national accreditation in November of 1989. Such status guarantees the department will adhere to the utmost standards in law enforcement. The LPD has been reaffirmed in its efforts on numerous occasions, including re-accreditations in 1994, 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2008, demonstrating a consistency in meeting goals and maintaining these lofty standards. The department will be reassessed in August of 2011, striving to once again find itself in the company of the most esteemed law enforcement agencies in the United States.Official accreditation is sanctioned by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA), acting as an independent credentialing authority. The CALEA was established in 1979, as part of a joint effort between 4 law enforcement associations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), the National Sheriffs Association (NSA) and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).The accreditation process serves as not only an honor to the agencies who are recognized as accredited entities, but as a means of establishing and maintaining a clearly set forth objectives in order to stay current with public safety initiatives. The officially held goals of the commission are to “strengthen crime prevention and control capabilities, formalize essential management procedures, establish fair and nondiscriminatory personnel practices, improve service delivery, solidify interagency cooperation and coordination, and increase community and staff confidence in the agency.”There are 5 steps in every accreditation process. First, an agency must enroll by contacting CALEA and submit an enrollment form either electronically on the CALEA website or via the hard-copy enrollment package. The following steps include a self-assessment of each agency by each agency, an on-site assessment by a team of trained assessors, a commission review and decision, which, if satisfactory, will result in a 3-year accreditation, and finally, maintaining compliance and reaccreditation, including an annual report and daily adherence to the “letter and spirit” of CALEA standards.