Sheriff Carl DuBois has announced that the Orange County Sheriff's Office has received the New York State Law Enforcement Accreditation from the Accreditation Council of the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services.
In order to receive this accreditation, the Sheriff's Office had to be in compliance with 130 standards as set forth by the Law Enforcement Accreditation Council. These standards are centered on three specific categories. Standards are set for the administrative aspects of the agency, agency operations and the training of officers in the agency.
The Sheriff's Office had an accreditation assessment conducted in October (18,19,20). Three independent accreditation assessors made a site visit to the Orange County Sheriff's Office and inspected the 130 files. These files contained the actual working policy of the Sheriff's Office along with supporting documentation. This documentation demonstrated to the independent assessors that policy was implemented and being followed.
Assessors were given a complete tour of the facility, reviewed agency files, conducted interviews with Office personnel, given escorted visits to work areas and met with both sworn and non sworn members during their evaluation. In addition, assessors observed an afternoon roll call briefing of the Road division.
As part of the compliance with these standards, Sheriff's Office officials implemented a new performance evaluation system, a new field training officer program, more training for Deputies, improvement in some of the Office infrastructure and other administrative controls.
The assessment team unanimously recommended that the Sheriff's Office be granted the Accreditation status.
Chauncy Parker, Director of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, was on hand yesterday to present Sheriff DuBois with the Accreditation Certificate. Director Parker commended the Sheriff for turning the Sheriff's Office around in only a three-year period. Parker stated " Sheriff DuBois has done something that is really remarkable, which is to go from almost being shut down before he got here, to then getting the gold medal standard of excellence."
Sheriff DuBois complimented his staff for this accomplishment. He stated that "Basic values of accountability, responsibility, discipline and fairness were instilled to our work force…Having developed, reviewed, trained and implemented the standards needed for Accreditation, we have built on that basic foundation which takes us to another level, increasing public confidence."
