Following an historical overview of the law enforcement accreditation process, this bulletin examines the attitudes of police administrators from accredited Texas agencies regarding the effects and attributes of being accredited.
The analysis is based on responses from 14 accredited Texas police agencies. Most survey questions asked the respondents whether they agreed or disagreed with statements that pertained to accreditation. The findings show that accredited law enforcement agencies in Texas view accreditation as beneficial to their departments. All of the accredited agencies agreed that accreditation produced sound policies and procedures as well as provided a basis for evaluation. These positive effects of accreditation can be observed when three major issues in law enforcement are considered: police pursuit policy, deadly force, and collection and preservation of evidence. Regarding the negative aspects of accreditation, most respondents agreed that the high cost and time commitment were the two major hurdles for seeking accreditation. Twenty-five police agencies were asked to rank-order the reasons for not seeking accreditation. High cost was the most-often-cited reason for not seeking accreditation, followed by time commitment. 3 figures, 3 tables, and 9 references