ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan Department of Public Safety was awarded law enforcement re-accreditation as of Aug. 1, 2012, by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, announced Interim Executive Director Joe Piersante.

DPS originally was awarded the three-year accreditation in August 2009. To achieve the CALEA recognition, the department had to show compliance with several hundred professional standards measured by the commission. An assessment team conducted an onsite visit in late March 2012 and reviewed written materials, conducted interviews with department staff and university members, and visited offices and other campus locations.

“I am very proud of the daily efforts of our officers to help keep our campus community a relatively safe environment in which to learn, study, live and work,” Piersante said. “Achieving this re-accreditation validates that this daily work meets or exceeds industry standards, while also meeting the safety and security needs of our community.”

As one of the last steps in the review process, the department’s accreditation manager, Heather McDonald, appeared July 21, 2012, before a CALEA review committee in Scottsdale, Ariz. The full commission granted re-accreditation later that day.

In 2009, U-M was the first department in the Big Ten Conference to become accredited and is one of 60 university law enforcement agencies with such distinction. Since then, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison also have been awarded. To maintain the three-year accredited status, the department will submit an annual report to show yearly compliance with the standards.

Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies: www.calea.org