By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

City officials are planning a celebration Monday for the Joplin Police Department, which was awarded accreditation by a national organization on Saturday in Florida.

After nearly three years of work, the department was officially enlisted by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), based in Fairfax, Va.

Police Chief Lane Roberts, Lt. Jeff Trotnic and Mayor Gary Shaw attended a banquet Saturday night in Boca Raton, Fla., where the agencies that achieved accreditation this year were recognized.

Assistant Chief Jason Burns said Friday that the department went through a three-phase procedure to earn accreditation. He said the bulk of that work entailed rewriting the department’s policy manual to incorporate CALEA’s standing operating guidelines. CALEA has 459 individual standards that must be adopted and implemented.

“CALEA describes what has to be done but leaves the how up to the agency,” Burns said. “CALEA expects the agency to live up to the standards.”

He said accreditation is meant to achieve greater accountability within the department.

“We opened the department to nationally accepted guidelines so that the community knows we abide by professionally accepted standards,” Burns said.

After going through the application process, and then the self-assessment phase in which the department’s policies were evaluated and adjusted to adapt to CALEA standards, a team of CALEA evaluators visited the department to determine if the department had done the work to implement those standards, Burns said. After accreditation is awarded, the self-assessment work continues in three-year cycles to keep the department operating at peak efficiency, he said.

A reception for the department is scheduled for 4 to 6 p.m. Monday in the lobby of the Dr. Donald E. Clark Public Safety and Justice Center, 303 E. Third St.

Mayor Gary Shaw said CALEA was started in the 1970s to give police departments guidelines for establishing a high level of professional service.

“I know they have 459 standards and these are standards the department has to meet or exceeded. To me, that means they are kind of like the elite,” Shaw said. “They’re not just getting by doing the least requirements. They’re going the extra mile to be the best they can be and, as citizens, we ought to be proud of them.”

Residents are invited to attend the reception, the mayor said.