Barnegat Police Department Aiming for National Accreditation

After three years of rewriting the rulebook on policy and procedure, the Barnegat Township Police Department is poised to become the first nationally accredited agency in Ocean County, and only the eighth in the state.

On Aug. 13, assessors from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies will arrive at the department to start the process of examining how well Barnegat has met their strict standards.

The path to accreditation hasn’t been easy, said Barnegat Police Chief Art Drexler, and if the department is granted CALEA approval, it will mark a significant achievement.

“I’m so excited over it,” he said. “Frankly it would have been easier to say, ‘We don’t want to do this,’ but I see the greater good here. I can’t imagine what the downside would be.”

CALEA is a national nonprofit made up of police chiefs, judges, sherriffs and others in the law enforcement field that aims to establish best practices for police departments everywhere, from crime prevention to personnel management, according to the organization’s mission, and the only national entity that accredits police departments. 

The New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police recently adopted a shortened version of CALEA’S standards for a state accreditation program of its own, said Barnegat Lt. Keith Germain.

Barnegat gained its state accreditation about two years ago, said Barnegat Police Chief Art Drexler, and then decided to aim to be the first agency in the county to receive full CALEA accreditation. 

It meant committing to a major overhaul of department policies and three years of meticulously documenting that officers were following those policies.  It also meant $15,000 in out-of-pocket costs for the township, according to officials – mostly fees to the accrediting agency. 

But township and police officials said achieving accreditation is worth the work, and the cost.

CALEA has offered a template that’s allowed the department to create guidelines for every imaginable occurrence, said Drexler, as well as a system for adjusting the rulebook in the future.

“I like to equate it to running a business or a family,” he said. “You have to have a certain set of rules, but…they also have to be revised every once in awhile.”

Efficiency and effectiveness are key for the department in a time when budgets are tight and the township’s population keeps growing, Drexler said. 

Barnegat Lt. Keith Germain said accreditation is a mark of achievement that goes a long way in proving the quality of the department’s police work. 

“It validates everything we’re doing as an agency,” he said. “It has an outside, disinterested third party that’s very knowledgeable in law enforcement come in and verify that we are meeting the best practices that exist.”

And that means more than peace of mind and pride – it means savings on liability insurance.

“Police liability is the greatest insurance exposure any local government could have, and the Ocean County Joint Insurance Fund offers premium reductions as an incentive to pursue accreditation,” said township administrator David Breeden.

There’s a reduction in the department’s deductible, too, said Germain, from $50,000 to $25,000.

Perhaps more significantly, he said, accreditation makes the agency less vulnerable to lawsuits, which nearly always focus on instances where police didn’t have enough training or where a department didn’t have a procedure in place.

Accreditation not only leads to better police work, he said, it ensures there are procedures in place for everything, leaving few footholds for frivolous suits.

“I can’t prove we’ve saved the town from a $5 million lawsuit,” he said, but making an argument against accreditation based on cost is like arguing against carrying liability insurance. “All things being equal, accreditation has a very low cost versus the benefit you get from it.”

Drexler said he’s worked to keep the cost of the accreditation process at a minimum. Two officers were taken off the road to focus on updating procedures and policies, but nobody got overtime for the work.

“It’s all on-duty, and it’s come from their grit and determination, and a lot of input and work on their own,” he said. Accreditation is an important step for Barnegat, he said, “but I’d be a fool to say we’ll shell out $20,000 to $30,000 for overtime to do it.”

Still, it wasn’t an easy task, he said. There were 367 new standards to meet, on top of 112 required for state accreditation, from proper procedure in a car pursuit to how to handle weapons.  

Along with Germain, Officer Sarah Girgenti and Sgt. Gary Larussa have devoted the last three years to collecting proof that the department has met the standards, from photographs to police reports demonstrating officers followed through on new rules. Their work fills hundreds of folders, now neatly filed in boxes awaiting the eyes of the CALEA commissioners, who arrive Aug. 13 to inspect the department.

Barnegat won’t know if it’s achieved accreditation until November, said Drexler, but “I am very confident,” he said.

He said the department is already seeing the benefits of having a strong set of policies and significantly more oversight of officers. 

Barnegat mayor Jeffrey Melchiondo, who worked closely with Drexler throughout the process, agreed.

“In my personal opinion, the Barnegat Township Police Department has become a model department through their efforts towards achieving national accreditation,” he said.

Still, it’s not over, said Drexler. The three-year makeover wouldn’t be worth it if all the work stopped after the department received its stamp of approval from CALEA.

“We can’t give up now,” he said. “We have stay on it.”

Offer your input.

As part of the on-site assessment, members of the community are invited to offer comments at a public information session at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 14 in the municipal courtroom.

For those who can't attend the public event, a telephone call-in session will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. the same day. Interested individuals can reach the assessors at 609-698-0556.

Phone comments and appearances at the public information session are limited to 10 minutes and must address the agency’s ability to comply with the accreditation standards.

Written comments may be sent to the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), 13575 Heathcote Blvd., Suite 320, Gainesville, VA 20155.

A copy of the standards is available upon request from the department. Interested individuals can contact the accreditation manager, Lt. Keith Germain, at 609-698-5000, ext. 203.