Campus & Community

Accreditation Assessment Team Invites Public Comment

Tuesday, January 6, 2015, By Keith Kobland

A team of assessors from the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA) will arrive on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015, to examine all aspects of the Department of Public Safety’s policy and procedures, management, operation and support services, Interim Chief Jill Lentz has announced.

Verification that the Syracuse University Department of Public Safety meets IACLEA’S state-of-the-art standards is part of a voluntary process to gain accreditation—a highly prized recognition of campus public safety professional excellence.

University employees, DPS staff members and the public are invited to offer comments by calling 315-443-0131 on Monday, Jan. 26, between 10 a.m. and noon. Comments will be taken by members of the Assessment Team, not DPS personnel.

Telephone comments must address the department’s ability to comply with IACLEA’s standards. A copy of the standards is available at the Department of Public Safety, 005 Sims Hall. Anyone wishing to submit written comments about the Department of Public Safety’s ability to comply with the standards for accreditation may send them to IACLEA, 342 North Main St., West Hartford, CT 06117-2507. The Department of Public Safety must comply with 239 standards in order to achieve accreditation.

The DPS undertook the challenge of gaining accreditation for a number of reasons. Accreditation provides a professional benchmark with which to measure policies and procedures. It also ensures those practices are well-documented, department personnel receive clear guidance and qualified personnel are recruited and retained long term. Moreover, the process may serve to assure the University administration, University community and other local law enforcement agencies of the quality of DPS services.

The accreditation manager for the Department of Public Safety, Andrea Stagnari, says the assessment team is composed of experienced campus law enforcement professionals from in and out of state. The assessors will review written materials, interview individuals and inspect facilities where compliance can be witnessed. Once the assessors complete their review of the DPS, they will report back to IACLEA, which will then decide if the department will be granted accreditation.

Accreditation is for four years, during which the department must submit annual reports attesting to continued compliance with those standards under which it was initially accredited.