Sheriff's office wins accreditation

After a nearly four-year process, the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office received recognition as a nationally accredited law enforcement agency, one of just four sheriff’s offices in Louisiana with such a distinction.
Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre, who serves on the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, presented the accreditation certificate to the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office.
In 1979, the National Sheriffs’ Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives and Police Education Research Forum formed the accreditation commission to provide the accreditation service to law enforcement agencies, according to the organization’s website.
The commission consists of 21 commissioners, of which Webre serves as vice chairman, and sets the standards for agencies to achieve.
The purpose of the program is to improve the delivery of public safety services, primarily by maintaining a body of standards, developed by public safety practitioners, covering a wide range of up-to-date public safety initiatives; establishing and administering an accreditation process and recognizing professional excellence, its website says.
“Those standards are representative of the best practices in law enforcement across the country today. They’re constantly reviewed, modified, tweaked and enhanced and developed as the field develops,” Webre said.
The commission also employs law enforcement professionals who review an agency’s compliance with the standards and then confers accredited status.
Of the roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the country, only 5 percent are nationally accredited, Webre said.
“Accreditation today has never had a greater importance in the lives of police officers because never in the history of law enforcement have we been under greater scrutiny as a profession,” Webre said.
The accreditation process provides accountability to a particular agency and to the people that agency serves, Webre said.
St. Mary Parish Sheriff Mark Hebert said every employee “bought into the vision” to be able to achieve accreditation in about a 3-1/2-year time period.
Commission staff audited everything in the sheriff’s office from finances to education of staff to equipment to general operations, Hebert said. The commission also talks to people in the community, he said.
The sheriff’s office personnel dedicate their personal time doing community outreach such as educating kids about Internet crime, Hebert said.
And just because the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office has achieved accreditation doesn’t mean the commission stops monitoring the department.
“You’re constantly educating your people. You’re constantly showing proof that you’re continually doing the things that you say you’re going to do in the fashion that you’re supposed to do them,” Hebert said.
Hebert encourages other agencies considering going through the accreditation process “to get engaged,” he said.
“It’s something I’m proud to be a part of. And it’s made a big, significant difference in what we do and how we do it differently,” Hebert said.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com