The Fayette Citizen-News Page
Wednesday, August 12, 1998
Fayetteville police department recognized as one of the best

By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Fayetteville's police department has entered the ranks of Georgia's best-trained and best-operated law enforcement agencies.

Police Chief Johnny Roberts reported recently that the department received state accreditation and, for the second year in a row, was named Georgia's best-trained police organization during a conference of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police last weekend.

"I'm very proud of the men and women in the police department who worked very hard to develop these standards," Roberts told the City Council in a recent presentation of the awards.

The Outstanding Award for Departmental Training recognizes the fact that Fayetteville's officers on average have undergone 174.8 hours of training, highest in the state, Roberts said.

Accreditation recognizes that the city has met standards adopted by the state last year after years of discussion and research. The department is one of only 24 accredited in the state thus far.

Early in the discussions, Roberts said, he attended training sessions and meetings and, when a set of 104 standards were published in summer 1997, "I wanted to immediately do it," he said.

The department started the process in October with revision of its policies and procedures manual to mirror the new standards. With a new 402-page manual in hand, the next step was to train officers in those procedures and implement them in Fayetteville, Roberts said.

"It's not enough to have it written down. You also have to do it," he said.

The procedures cover every aspect of operating the police department. For example, an accredited department must have and implement guidelines for operating emergency equipment, including high-speed pursuit. An officer on the scene would consider such factors as weather, traffic conditions and the severity of the crime before giving chase, and that person's supervisor could call off the pursuit at any time if it is deemed unsafe, Roberts said.

Another example: procedures for handling evidence. "Inspectors go through the evidence room to be sure we are keeping up with everything," said Roberts.

The manual covers the department's role and responsibilities, its code of conduct, communications, personnel, operations, management, legal procedures and support services.

With the procedures in place, Roberts said he called the Georgia Police Accreditation Commission and asked for a dry run assessment as a preliminary to applying for accreditation. But when inspectors showed up in April, they found so little that needed correction that they suggested using the dry run as the full assessment.

"They only found a couple of areas that were so minor that we corrected them while they were still here," said Roberts.

"We are extremely excited about it," he told The Citizen Tuesday.

State accreditation is good for five years, Roberts said, but his department is not sitting on its laurels. Officers already are working to meet more than 300 standards of professionalism required for national accreditation.

"That's our next goal," said Roberts.


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