Two New Programs 

After a two-year study by a special task force comprised of law enforcement officials from the United States and Canada, the CALEA Board of Commissioners introduced two new groundbreaking programs at the Schaumburg, IL meeting, the CALEA Recognition Program and the State Alliance Program.

The CALEA Recognition Program is designed for smaller agencies with limited resources that wish to achieve basic professional recognition. This program may serve as a stepping stone for smaller law enforcement agencies that wish to participate in a professional credentialing program before seeking accreditation. The Recognition Program contains 95 mandatory CALEA standards from the 4th Edition of the Standards for Law Enforcement Agencies that reflect high liability and legal issues, critical management practices, and life, health, and safety issues. The Commission selected standards for the Recognition Program from the Standards for Law Enforcement Agencies manual "as is," without modifying chapter introductions, the number system, standard statement commentary, level of compliance or vocabulary terms. While some of this material may not apply to an agency in the Recognition Program, it is necessary for a general understanding of the accreditation process and to assist agencies that will go on to accreditation, or who wish to comply with additional standards. The process for implementing the Recognition Program is very similar to the process and on-site assessment format used in the accreditation program. Compliance with these standards will result in the achievement of a new CALEA three-year award called "CALEA Recognized." The agency may remain in Recognition status or opt to comply with the appropriate remaining 344 standards and achieve Accredited status, CALEA’s highest award.

The new Alliance Program will allow CALEA to establish formal relationships with viable existing state and province accreditation organizations. CALEA Commissioner Steve Monier, who chaired the task force asserts, "States and provinces with accreditation programs that want to be in an alliance with CALEA will have their programs reviewed to ensure their standards meet CALEA’s standards intent. Moreover, biennial reviews will ensure that the integrity of the alliance, and the relevance of its process and programs are preserved." Allied state and province programs will administer the CALEA Recognition Program, including assessments and compliance monitoring, in conjunction with their state/province program.

Agencies in states or provinces that are members of the alliance have two ways of entering the Recognition Program, either through the Alliance member, or directly from CALEA.

Commission Chair William Miller, endorsed the new programs stating, "The Alliance and Recognition Programs will enhance law enforcement by consolidating efforts to professionalize. The result is that everyone benefits. The states and provinces can demonstrate their professionalism, smaller agencies have a device by which to improve and be recognized, and duplication and confusion is reduced."

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