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The mission of the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office is to provide honest, fair, professional law enforcement services to the citizens of Bradley County while managing resources effectively to prevent and reduce crime. To this end, it has always been my goal to continually upgrade, modernize and enhance the professionalism and effectiveness of the BCSO. One of the latest methods by which I hope to accomplish this is through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). CALEA is a nationally recognized professional law enforcement model that will bring cohesion and consistency to the operations of the BCSO. Some of the advantages include greater accountability, controlling liability insurance costs, offering a stronger defense against civil lawsuits, advancing greater support from government officials and increasing community advocacy. Currently, there are three sheriff’s offices that are accredited in Tennessee. My hope is Bradley County will become the fourth.
This is a gradual process, but my goal is to at least be close to accreditation by the end of my first term. The CALEA model is the yardstick by which modern law enforcement agencies are measured in terms of professionalism and accountability, and I’m anxious to move forward with it.
This will also offer proof positive to the citizens of Bradley County that the BCSO has met a set of 450 recognizable, professional guidelines supported by CALEA accreditation; which is, in turn, supported by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Police Executive Research Forum and the National Organization of Black Law Executives, just to name a few.
The accreditation also requires us to review our policies regularly to ensure common practice and compliance. It has always been my goal to build a professional, effective and progressive law enforcement operation for the citizens of Bradley County, and CALEA establishes a clearly defined model so everyone will understand policy and procedure, and there will be no second guessing or questions after the fact.
And let me point out here ~ just to avoid confusion ~ that CALEA accreditation is different than the Tennessee Corrections Institute (TCI) certification, which involves meeting minimum state standards for jail operations. CALEA is the law enforcement side that, and includes court security, investigations and other law enforcement functions.
I’d also like to extend appreciation and credit to BCSO Lt. Jim Hodgson, who serves as our Accreditation Manager. He has spent a lot of time researching CALEA requirements and compiling and submitting the necessary information that got us on the road to accreditation.
To read more regarding the CALEA model and some of the other agencies who have received accreditation, go to their website: www.calea.org. Click on “CALEA Clients,” then click on “Client Database,” type in “Bradley County Sheriff’s Office,” and you will see us listed there.
Now ... before I close, I want to change the subject and tell you about an upcoming event that I am very excited about: Be sure and mark your calendars for Saturday, October 13. That’s when we’ll be having our big Sheriff’s Family Day at Stuart School (Keith & 20th). Details will follow, but I can tell you now it will be a day of free food, live music, fun for the kids, door prizes and much, much more. We’ll be going from noon until 5:00 p.m., and I look forward to seeing you all there. I’ll give you more info next time, but meanwhile it never hurts to check in to the BCSO website on a regular basis. It’s the best way to keep up with everything that’s going on at the Sheriff’s Office.
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