City Officials Support Greenbelt Police's Re-Accreditation at Hearing

The recent assessment process went fairly well, Greenbelt Police Lt. John Barrett said in an interview Thursday. Barrett, who served as accreditation manager noted that only two people showed up at the public hearing that was part of a national re-accreditation process for the department. But that was a good sign, according to Barrett.

Having talked with accreditation managers in other municipalities, Barrett explained that the trend is "When you have problems, you get crowds."

At the public hearing in Greenbelt’s Municipal Building on Monday — Greenbelt Mayor Judith “J” Davis announced that she had been stopped by the police the night before on April 1 for having only one working headlight, by a new officer she had sworn in recently. No, it’s not an April Fools' joke. The only person laughing, Davis said, was the officer accompanying the new recruit.

She received a warning and cited the stop as an example of a positive interaction with police.

That surprise announcement was elicited when Chief Thomas Bennett, of Suffolk, VA, asked if she had any comments. Davis recalled that in their phone conversation earlier that day, she had praised the department as being very professional, doing an excellent job with support from citizens and council. She said there is very strong citizen support for the police budget.

Bennett and Len Hatcher — a Garner, NC police lieutenant — conducted the hearing as an assessment team for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) Inc., of Gainesville, VA.

Before the hearing began, Bennett told Greenbelt Police Chief James R. Craze that he had received several phone calls that day, all with positive input. In introductory remarks, Bennett said that in its original application for accreditation, the department had “exceeded the commission’s standards manual, which contains 480 standards encompassing all facets of law enforcement.”

The only other speaker at the hearing was Greenbelt City Council Member Leta Mach told Bennett and Hatcher that she has lived in Greenbelt for nearly 38 years and is very proud of the police department. She also said that since she first served on the City Council in 2003, she has seen how hard the police work.

Police Aim for New Top National Award

Before the hearing, Greenbelt Police Capt. Carl Schinner told Patch that the department had applied for a new and higher level accreditation called Accreditation with Excellence Award, or “an indication of superlative performance” according to CALEA’s website. He also described it as the “highest single period accreditation award available.” 

Schinner, who managed the department’s first accreditation process in 2006, said the department was eligible for the higher honor because it had previously received very positive accreditations for two consecutive cycles — 2006 and 2009. The voluntary accreditation process occurs every three years.

Both accessors said it was probably one of the better ones they went through, according to Barrett. But nothing is official until the recommendations are approved at CALEA’s November conference. He also said that police showed the assessors that they had developed a computer-assisted dispatch system as recommended in their last accreditation assessment.

Barrett had high praise for the city's citizen support base.

"It makes it a lot easier to come to work and do a good job, when you know the citizens appreciate what you do," he said.

Bailey Henneberger contributed to this report.