The above photo was taken during the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs Conference in Lake Chelan. Pictured in the photo is WASPC President Chief Ed Holmes of the Mercer Island Police Department, Chief Civil Deputy Judy Mawhorter, Sheriff Rick Scott and WASPC Director of Management Services Mike Painter.
The Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Department received recognition for successfully completing the WASPC Accreditation review. Accreditation is a voluntary process wherein law enforcement officials review an agency’s policies and procedures to determine if they meet industry standards in all aspects of law enforcement to include health and safety procedures, patrol procedures, accounting procedures, and personnel procedures. There are 136 standards in all and an agency must comply with all of them in order to receive recognition.
Grays Harbor County was originally accredited in 1994 and have continued to participate in this voluntary program. It takes a combined effort from all personnel to make sure our agency stays in compliance with all of the standards and procedures which can be a difficult task during these tough times of reduced staff and budget. I am very proud of our personnel for their efforts.
There are currently only seven Sheriff’s Departments in the State of Washington that are accredited with WASPC. The benefits to accreditation are many:
To increase public confidence in the agency
To increase credibility.
To provide a systemized agency self-assessment.
To broaden perspectives.
To intensify administrative and operational effectiveness.
To ensure recruitment, selection, and promotion processes are fair and equitable.
To strengthen understanding of agency policies and procedures by agency personnel
To improve agency morale and pride.
To decrease susceptibility to litigation and costly civil court settlements.
To potentially reduce liability insurance costs.
To provide state and local recognition of professional competence
We will be up for review again in 2016.
Sheriff Rick Scott
Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Department
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