Eugene police aim for national standards.

Byline: Rebecca Nolan The Register-Guard

The Eugene Police Department plans to raise the bar on its own standards by seeking accreditation from a national policing body that so far has approved only five Oregon law enforcement agencies for the honor.

Should Eugene police win accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, it will join the Washington County Sheriff's Office and the Corvallis, Forest Grove, Grants Pass and Hillsboro police departments - all agencies that have established and maintained thorough and modern sets of policies and procedures based on CALEA's own models.

Eugene Police Chief Robert Lehner said the process could take about two years and cost the city between $20,000 and $30,000 in fees.

But he said getting a "professional double-check" will be worth the time and money.

"It forces that top-to-bottom review of what are accepted law enforcement standards around the country," Lehner said. "It gives you the framework and professional discipline to make sure that you have all the policies and procedures you should and to make sure they are maintained to professional standards."

During a recent interview, Lehner thumbed through a yellow loose-leaf binder containing the policies required of an accredited agency. It will take at least one, possibly two, full-time employees to work through the stack page-by-page to ensure that Eugene meets the standards.

The benefits of voluntary accreditation, according to CALEA, include greater accountability and higher morale within police agencies, controlled liability insurance costs, stronger defense against civil lawsuits, greater support from government agencies and a sense of well-being and safety in the hearts and minds of the community.

The department will have to prove it has the required policies, that police employees have undergone necessary training and that supervisors are enforcing the standards.

The process must be repeated every three years to ensure policies are kept up-to-date.

The ongoing monitoring should show the community that "we're accountable, and we're proving it to somebody other than ourselves," Lehner said.

The Corvallis Police Department first earned CALEA accreditation in 1995 and is about to embark on its third re-accreditation process, Lt. Ron Noble said.

The city has a full-time person dedicated to paperwork and generating the annual reports required by the national organization.

In addition to the initial subscription fee based on the number of police employees, the city must also foot the bill for the accreditation team to travel to Corvallis every three years.

There has been some debate about whether accreditation is worth all the trouble and expense, Noble said. Time and again, the Corvallis department has decided it is.

"It lends some credibility to what we do in the community," Noble said. "Law enforcement is always going to be called into question. That's a good thing. It makes us sharper. But having an outside organization come in and do this proves that we're not just doing our own thing in Corvallis. We're living up to national and international standards."

Friction between CALEA and some of its member states, including Oregon, has complicated the process and potentially could force Eugene to alter its plans.

Lehner said he was confident the issues would be resolved by the time his department is ready for accreditation. If not, the city might turn to the Oregon Accreditation Alliance, which grants statewide accreditation instead of national, or might discuss forming a regional accreditation group with states such as Washington, Idaho and Montana.