The other day, someone mentioned something to me about my old job and combined with my thinking about my possible new job, I couldn’t help but go over some things from the past in my head.
My old police department was CALEA accredited. CALEA required departments meet very stringent standards for accreditation and for our first time thought the process, we not only met, but exceeded these standards. I am proud of the fact hat in addition to all of the good remarks our agency received from the assessors, I was specifically called out for my exceptional performance (along with HR Director Connie Harris) presenting our hiring process.
We were on a high after that initial accreditation. Three years later, we were up for re-accreditation and our Chief wanted to do even better. Now, while I think it is important to strive for perfection, you should also have an acceptance of imperfection. The bar for reaccreditation is set higher than it is for initial accreditation and it is inevitable that some error will be found. While a perfect score would be nice, a near perfect score was still very much above average. I had watched other agencies go through the reaccreditation process and was shocked at what they managed to pull off through the process.
One of the standards which I was responsible for was ‘Property and Evidence’.
A few days before the assessors were due to arrive; the Communications Unit Supervisor brought me two wallets which had been left in the dispatch office in violation of our General Orders. The officers who left the wallets there may have had all good intentions of making them accessible for the owners to pick them up, but they were still left in violation of policy. The dispatcher(s) who let the wallets remain in the office may have had all good intentions as well but were also in violation of policy. When the wallets were brought to me and I accepted them without property sheets, I had all good intentions. When I look back, I know I should have done the right thing and refused to take them without sheets. Or, I could have done the wrong thing and just tossed them in the trash. But, I accepted the wallets and called the 800 number for the credit cards and left messages for the owners to come get their wallets. Then, I tossed the wallets in the property room, hoping the owners would come.
On the day of our onsite, with all the bad luck that a person could have, I got caught with the wallets, undocumented, in my property room. Ironically, you would think someone would get into more trouble for having a property sheet but no property. This would imply theft. But no, having property with no sheet was the violation.
The assessor asked me to find the sheet and get back to him. I went to the accreditation manager to explain what was happening and all of the history leading up to my being in possession of the wallet. I stupidly though that he would give me good advice or that he would at least back me up later. On his advice, I came clean to the assessor who documented our minor ‘non compliance’.
We passed our onsite with flying colors. Not perfection but near perfection. We had, I believe, two marks of ‘non compliance’.
Re accreditation is a slow process. After the onsite visit, there is an exit interview with the assessors and Command Staff. Then, there is a waiting period until the next conference. At the conference, a report is submitted by the assessors and then the department is required to answer questions and defend any instances of non-compliance.
Over these several months, I received several conflicting bits of information from officers on the department who were involved in the process. Several people told me that although the wallet was mentioned in the exit interview and the conference, it was not made out to be the tragic big deal that I had been told it was. I also heard reports that the problem with the wallets was a huge big deal and almost caused our agency to be denied re accreditation.
As I look back, I can trace all of the doomsday comments back to one source and that person has had the ear of the Chief for quite a while. It appears that the Chief was constantly being reminded that my big screw up had almost cost us our accreditation. It took about a year after the ‘giant wallet screw-up’ to become a part of my sudden career change but my friends are patient if nothing else.
Funny thing, just a few days after the assessors left (and a huge deal was made about the wallets) I overheard a conversation between a patrol officer and the accreditation manger. The officer stated that he had a set of car keys and the owner was going to be coming by after property room hours to pick them up. The accreditation manager advised him to leave the keys in dispatch – that would be without a property sheet, of course. Property was left in dispatch several more times over the next year but no tie was as ironic as that one.
So, like a game of Hot Potato, everyone had their hands on the wallets at one point but I happened to be the one who had them when the music stopped.
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