Brockport police department
closer to achieving accreditation

For the past two years, the Brockport Police Department has been striving toward accreditation and now they may be reaching their goal.

Police Chief Dan Varrenti said that when he was hired, it was made clear that achieving accreditation was something the board wanted addressed. "I not only felt it was something the board wanted, but it is certainly something that I would set down as a goal for myself and my department," he said.

The accreditation process compels a police department to conform to standards that can benefit the department and the community that it serves. "It ensures that the department is constantly being reviewed and that you are operating a law enforcement agency that lends itself to the highest degree of professionalism," Varrenti said.

The mock accreditation took place September 9. "Everything went very well," Varrenti said. "There were a few suggestions but nothing major and in fact all the accreditors stated that it was the most organized mock accreditation they had ever done."

On September 16, two examiners from Albany were to come to Brockport to examine files and folders kept in accordance with accreditation. The September 16 examination is part of the pre-accreditation process. The actual accreditation procedure will take place October 11 through 14.

In the pre-accreditation process, the examiners from a local police department will come in, pull 10 random standards out of the 134 total standards that a department will be measured against and see how the department fares, before the examiners come out from Albany. Within the next couple of weeks, the BPD will undergo a mock accreditation drill. "It's something that is internally coordinated by our department," Varrenti said. "The mock procedure is a goal we set for ourselves." With the mock accreditation, the department under consideration goes to other police departments and works with them, and the accredited officers they have on staff, to come in and do an initial assessment of the department before the state accreditors come in. "Without the interagency cooperation we receive with police departments throughout Monroe County, we wouldn't be where we are today in this process," he said.

Varrenti chose Sergeant Douglas Ziegler to be the accreditation manager for Brockport. "He is meticulous in his record keeping," Varrenti said. "Not only am I blessed to have an officer of his caliber on staff, but this community is blessed to have the people that we have in this police department."

While accreditation is a grueling process, Varrenti said that former police chief Gary Zimmer left the office in a good place for its being able to travel the path toward accreditation. "It has been a matter of tweaking some things and implementing procedures for others," Varrenti said.
Under Ziegler's command, the procedures have been updated and follow all mandates set down from the state, but Varrenti said it is also the officers who are out on the streets everyday who make the process work. "Some of the credit goes to the officers and command staff," Varrenti said. "Sergeant Ziegler can write the police changes but if the officers don't adhere to it, then all of the work would have been for naught."

In order to begin the process, Ziegler had to begin with revamping the general orders. "Every order we have in the book is done to comply with the 134 standards that New York State puts forth," he said. "But it's up to the individual departments to decide how to tailor the standards to meet their needs and the needs of the community it serves."

Examples of some of the standards on which the department will be measured include: record keeping, officer training, recording officer status, how an officer responds to calls, vehicle pursuit procedures and policies on records retention.

Ziegler said he had a lot of cooperation within the department. "Everyone recognized the need for general orders and the need for compliance with the New York State standards," he said.

"If you do things the way it is written down, then an officer is not going to get themselves into any trouble. The beauty of having everything printed in black and white is that the officers should have no question on which procedure to follow."

Under the accreditation process there are 134 standards that are measured. Departments are scrutinized to see if they are following the standards that are set down in the procedure books. "When the officials come from Albany, they will go through our written procedures and they will ride with our officers to make certain that what is written down is actually being put into practice," Varrenti said.

The accreditors from Albany will be in Brockport on October 12, 13 and 14 to examine the day-to-day operations. The process will see three examiners come out on all three days and each will spend eight hours both in the office and out on the streets with the officers as they go about their daily routines.

Brockport is the only department in Monroe County to have not achieved accreditation yet. But if they receive the designation after the October examination, Monroe County will be one of only a handful of law enforcement agencies across the country to have all of its departments accredited.

Once a department achieves accreditation, it can't rest on its laurels, Varrenti said. "The accreditation is only good for five years but we can't wait for the fifth year to cram for the next accreditation examination," he said. It is expected that police departments will update orders continually. And, Varrenti said, if all the updates all take place in one year, it shows the examiners that the department isn't very active in processing the office procedures to meet the needs of the community or to adapt to new technologies and new laws.

"I'm glad to be nearing the end of the process but the fun really begins the day after you are accredited and you have to continue to prove you are doing what you said you'd do," Ziegler said. Accreditation, he said, is an on-going every day process.