GROVELAND – Chief Jeffrey Gillen is pleased to announce that the Groveland Police Department has achieved State Certification from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission (MPAC).
The department was officially awarded certification on Sept. 23, and it remains in effect for three years.
“Certification is a reflection of the standards that our entire department holds itself to, and I’m proud of the intensive work that went into ensuring we met and exceeded those standards,” Chief Gillen said. “I’d especially like to thank our accreditation manager, Officer Edwin Fournier, for his efforts to steward us through this process.”
Certification is a self-initiated evaluation process by which police departments strive to meet and maintain the highest standards of law enforcement. Certification is considered the best measure of a police department against the established best practices around the country. Certification means:
- The department is committed to meeting professional standards.
- The department is willing to be assessed regularly by Commission-appointed assessors to confirm compliance with professional standards; and
- The department agrees to correct deficiencies discovered during the assessment to establish or re-establish compliance with standards.
The voluntary MPAC program requires that departments meet 159 mandatory standards to attain certification. Standards include maintaining up-to-date policies on Jurisdiction and Mutual Aid, Collection and Preservation of Evidence, Communications, Working Conditions, Crime Analysis, Community Involvement, Financial Management, Internal Affairs, Juvenile Operations, Patrol Administration, Public Information, Records, Traffic, Training, Drug Enforcement and Victim/Witness Assistance.
The certification process is long and rigorous. Groveland’s certification efforts involved a self-review and subsequent evaluation by a team of Commission-appointed assessors who found the department to be in full compliance with all of the necessary standards required for certification.
Certification is considered a significant step toward accreditation, which requires departments to meet additional benchmarks in order to achieve MPAC’s highest standard for police departments.
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