Posted on: Wednesday, April 30, 2003
HPD seeks national accreditation
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Honolulu Police Department received high praise at a hearing held this week by the commission that will determine whether the department is accredited.
Six residents, including a former deputy police chief and the Ho-nolulu Fire Department chief, told a three-member panel of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies that the department is professional and responsive to the needs of the community. The hearing was held Monday at HPD's Career Center night to gather residents' comments on the performance of the department.
The department will find out in July whether it will be among the nearly 600 U.S. police departments to be accredited.
Capt. Kurt Kendro, a member of HPD's accreditation committee, said accreditation would "set the measuring stick and raise the bar of expectations of professionalism within the Police Department and for us to achieve that level."
To be accredited, the department has to meet more than 440 standards set by the commission in the areas of policy and procedures, administration, operations, and support services.
The Maui Police Department was accredited by CALEA in 1996.
Rudolph Baas is a resident manager of a Salt Lake building and he said HPD has been "100 percent professional."
He said he has lived in several cities across the country and rates HPD as the best.
Baas said police have helped him rid his building of prostitutes, drug dealers and gang members.
Honolulu Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi praised HPD as a "highly professional organization" that is "always on the cutting edge of new ideas."
"HPD is very active in the Weed & Seed, Police Activities League, DARE. They always have something going on," Leonardi said.
He added that the two departments work and train together. "Everything that we do we do as a team," Leonardi said.
Retired police Deputy Chief Michael Carvalho said accreditation has been a goal of Chief Lee Donohue since Donohue took office in 1998.
Carvalho said the benefits of accreditation would include: recognition of professional excellence; an increase in effectiveness in delivering law enforcement services; an increase HPD's capabilities to prevent and control crime; and the increase employee and community confidence in the department.
"We have seen great progress in the department, and the attempt to get CALEA status is a milestone in this continuous improvement process," said Carvalho, who retired last year after 35 years of service.
The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies was created in 1979 by four major law enforcement agencies to recognize professional excellence in law enforcement services by complying with national standards. Accreditation for law enforcement agencies is similar to accreditation for institutions such as colleges and universities, and hospitals.
