Accreditation guides police policies, accountability

Before a Jackson police officer uses force to apprehend someone, or engages in a car chase, he or she has policy to think about.

Chief James Humphreys said his department's policies would stack a few feet tall if they were printed out.

It's an ongoing job, and commitment, for the officers to study, remember and apply the policies, but training and policy are at the forefront of the police department in Jackson. That's largely because Jackson is an accredited agency under the CALEA organization, an acronym for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.

While the idea of policies and paperwork might sound bland in the criminal justice arena, this accreditation, according to Humphreys and others, strikes at the core of the culture of the department and other departments across the country. It speaks to accountability, a front-burner national concern since cellphone video of police interactions have streamed into the public consciousness.

Policy vigilance helps the department identify and weed out bad apples, and it sets clear standards for officer conduct, Humphreys said. It establishes rules and guidelines for situations such as use of force, pursuits and how to maintain and preserve evidence.

Jackson is one of three CALEA-accredited organizations in Southeast Missouri, Jackson Cpl. Rick Whitaker said. The others are Poplar Bluff and Missouri State Highway Patrol. Whitaker is working with CALEA officials for an annual review. The accreditation is given every four years.

It took Jackson three years to become a CALEA-accredited organization, with the process beginning in 2008.

Humphreys, when he was new to the chief role, discovered he didn't inherit many policies. He decided to tap into the national expertise offered by the not-for-profit CALEA organization. Jackson's initial accreditation came in 2011; the city was the first in the region to attain the distinction. CALEA sets out a wide range of standards for police departments to meet. Jackson pays between $4,000 and $5,000 annually to be part of the program, a bargain, according to Humphreys.

Here's roughly how it works:

CALEA establishes standards, agreed to by a commission made up of law enforcement leaders across the country.

Departments write policies to meet the standards.

Police management and officers review the policies several times a year.

CALEA staffers review the department's policies and evidence that their policies are followed.

The department receives recommendations and makes adjustments.

CALEA does a deep, on-site review every four years.

Then the CALEA commission reviews the applications, and approves or denies the accreditation.

The commission includes Dr. Joseph Schafer, who is the criminal justice program director at Saint Louis University.

He said CALEA is not alone in offering accreditation programs to agencies, and that other Missouri agencies may have other accreditations.

(Southeast Missouri law enforcement agencies in Cape Girardeau, Scott City, Sikeston, Perryville and Perry County reported no accreditation. As of press time, sheriff's offices in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties had not responded to inquiries regarding accreditation.)

Practical effects

The standards and policies are intended to have an effect on the streets, where police may face difficult and intense situations, but they also have a lot to do with how situations are handled internally. He said accrediting organizations are good for officers and management of agencies and, ultimately, good for the public as well.

Schafer said CALEA standards offer protections to officers by having established discipline policies that give certain rights to officers. They help chiefs and sheriffs with liability protection and standards applied evenly to everyone. The standards include policies on how public complaints are reviewed and investigated.

"For instance, if an officer is taking too long a lunch break, showing up late, there are written rules," Schafer said. "How do you handle that type of thing? Most big agencies have written policies, but many typical U.S. police departments -- such as townships and county agencies -- do not have written policies. Something like 80% of agencies have fewer than 50 employees. A professional agency needs to have these rules. You need to lay out rights of employees. Just because someone is alleged to have done something, doesn't mean they did that. Policies allow everyone to be treated fairly and equally as well. If you and I are in two events, and I'm the sheriff's nephew and you're not, we're held to the same system of accountability."

Scrutiny

In recent years, police departments across the country have come under increased scrutiny for the lethal use of force. Some of those incidents, such as George Floyd's death, have led to modified standards. CALEA wrote new rules regarding vascular neck restraints and choke holds, for example, Humphreys said. Schafer, the professor, said the Floyd incident also spurred new standards requiring officers to report other officers if they see abusive misconduct.

One of the most high-profile police chiefs in the country is a member of the CALEA Commission. Memphis, Tennessee, police chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis is a CALEA board member who recently fired seven officers for the beating death of Tyree Nichols. The incident demonstrated that CALEA standards do not prevent all officer misconduct. The five officers who were captured on video beating Nichols while he was handcuffed, were charged with second-degree murder. They recently pleaded not guilty.

Davis, unlike chiefs in other jurisdictions where similar fatal events occurred, acted swiftly and decisively, condemning the actions of the officers. She fired five officers within hours of the incident. Two were dismissed later. CALEA standards compel officers to intervene in situations of police brutality. The standards also compel officers in cases that involve use of force, to tend to the person's medical needs immediately, Humphreys said. None of the officers intervened to protect Nichols or gave medical care to Nichols after he was beaten to unconsciousness. One officer took photos of Nichols as he was propped up against an unmarked police car, according to the Associated Press.

"I was outraged," Davis told CNN the day after the incident. "It was incomprehensible to me. It was unconscionable. And I felt that I needed to do something and do something quickly. I don't think I witnessed anything of that nature my entire career."

The Southeast Missourian reached out to Davis through the department's public information office to inquire whether CALEA standards and policies had any impact on how she handled the situation, but those messages were not returned.

Schafer, without addressing the Memphis incident specifically, said CALEA's objective is to provide clarity in "both directions" between an officer and chief. Having clearly stated policies "then allows when big unfortunate events happen, makes it very clear what options chiefs and sheriffs have in that situation. They don't have to run around and say, 'This is what I want to do, but can I actually do it?' Or 'Will it be stopped by the HR department.'"

The Memphis Commercial Appeal, in an interview with Davis following Nichols' death, pointed out that four individuals have been killed in officer-involved shootings in the past four months. Davis told the newspaper she wasn't concerned about the use-of-force policy, but "what I am concerned about is the fact that last year we did have an uptick on assaults against officers with guns more frequently than years before. So naturally, our numbers were up more because officers responded to being shot at. I don't think that those reviews are going to reveal an officer's use of unnecessary force. As a matter of fact, some of those investigations have already been (completed) by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation."

In the same interview, Davis stated she invited the U.S. Department of Justice and the International Association of Chiefs of Police to independently investigate the department's specialized units, of which the officers involved in the beating death were members.

History

Schafer said CALEA has been in existence since the 1970s. Roughly 900 of about 18,000 police agencies in the U.S. are involved in CALEA accreditation programs. CALEA sets more than 400 standards for agencies to meet before offering accreditation in law enforcement.

"Professional groups even then were recognizing the need to establish standard for professionalism and accountability and best practices in law enforcement. Schafer has been on the commission the last eight years. CALEA, he explained, puts "four corners around the box" in writing standards. Individuals then write policies based on their situations and variables, such as size of staff and available resources.

"The standards are living documents, and that's always been intended to be the case," he said.

The CALEA agencies have an opportunity to recommend new standards, and their input is sought before a standard is changed.

Schafer said the intent of CALEA is to provide more accountability and transparency.

However, he said it's difficult to accurately gauge its success when the government does not track data regarding issues such as use of force, police-involved shootings, vehicle pursuits and many of the issues that are addressed by CALEA's standards.

"The visibility of these events in the last 10 years has increased with the dissemination of phones with cameras and with the spread of social media," he said. "But we know from available data, there are around 1,100 fatal incidents involving police every year. But how do we know that? We know that from a database kept by the Washington Post, not from an official data source."

Without data, he said, it's difficult to quantify and identify trends on problems and possible solutions.

"What was going on when this fatal event occurred?" he said. "What happened before and after that? What happened with the investigation? Was the officer charged? Did he lose his job? We have no idea, because there's no requirement for systematic data."

Even so, Shafer, Whitaker and Humphreys agree, that establishing policies to meet uniform standards, routinely reviewing polices and enforcing them, creates accountability and public trust.

"That's what this is all about," Humphreys said. "Accountability, integrity and transparency. "From the bottom to the top."