Police Department Undergoing Accreditation Review

Chief of Police Michael P. Murphy is pleased to announce that a team of assessors from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission is scheduled to arrive on February 5, 2014, to begin examining various aspects of the North Reading Police Department’s policies, procedures, operations and facilities.

Verification by the Assessment Team that the Department meets the Commission’s standards is part of a voluntary process to gain State Accreditation -- a self-initiated evaluation process by which police departments strive to meet and maintain standards that have been established for the profession, by law enforcement professional organizations and institutions. These standards represent the best of the best practices for law enforcement.

The Massachusetts Police Accreditation Program consists of 253 mandatory standards as well as 122 optional standards. In order to achieve accreditation status, the Department must meet all applicable mandatory standards as well as 60 % of the optional standards.

Achieving Accreditation status is a highly prized recognition of law enforcement professional excellence. The North Reading Police Department first achieved Accreditation status in January of 2011. The award runs for three years. The Department needs to be reassessed in order to maintain Accreditation status. The North Reading Police Department is one of forty seven (47) Police Departments in Massachusetts to be accredited by the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission.

If anyone is interested in learning more about this program, please contact Chief Michael Murphy mmurphy@nrpd.org or a member of the Accreditation Team, Officer James Carcia jcarcia@nrpd.org or Sergeant Anthony Morlani amorlani@nrpd.org .