Modern Living Marquette
Ryan Spitza
rspitza@miningjournal.net
White Lake Township Police Detective Lt. Matt Silverthorn, left, and Marquette Police Lt. Ryan Grim are pictured at the Marquette Police Department on Tuesday. MPD is seeking to maintain state accreditation status based on a series of "best practice" standards put forth by the Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission. A team of assessors, which includes Silverthorn, are in Marquette this week to examine all aspects of the department. MPD first achieved its status as an accredited apartment in 2019. (Journal photo by Ryan Spitza)
MARQUETTE — Officials from the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police's Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission are in Marquette this week to examine the Marquette Police Department as part of its process to maintain accreditation status.
The department was first recognized with state accreditation in 2019 and remains the only police agency in the Upper Peninsula to hold accreditation status.
In order to achieve accreditation, which is good for three years, a team of assessors from MLEAC performs an on-site assessment of all aspects of the police department, including policies and procedures, management, operations and support services. Agencies must be in compliance with MLEAC's 105 "best practice" standards to achieve accreditation.
"The accreditation status is basically an adoption and adhering to your policies and procedures that are set forward in the (MLEAC) standards," said MPD Lt. Ryan Grim, who also serves as the accreditation manager for the department. "We attained accreditation in 2019, and what that was is we had some assessors come on-site and they review all of our policies and procedures and make sure that we're adhering to the standards that are set forth by the state. It's good for three years, and after three years, they come back and do another on-site, and that's what we're doing (this week).
Detective Lt. Matt Silverthorn of the White Lake Township Police Department in Oakland County is one of the assessors on-site to examine the MPD this week.
"We come up here and we go through each of their standards and they have to prove for each year that they were using those standards," Silverthorn said. "An example would be if they have a standard that says they have to write a police report every time they use a taser, they have to show that they did that for each year or that it didn't occur. They'll give us a tour of the town, we'll talk to people, we talk to the city manager, we talk about the relationship between them and the police department, various people from the schools and things like that, programs that the department has … we'll look into those. We'll write a report and we'll give that to a commission that consists of police chiefs and other people, stakeholders from around the state. They'll sit in front of that board, they'll review that report and decide whether they're an accredited agency or not. As this is a reaccreditation, it keeps you an accredited agency.
"What accreditation does, it gives them a vetted system of policies and procedures so they're on pace with everyone else in the state as far as police department. That way, if they were to get sued or there would be an issue, it's not just policies they made up themselves, they're using policies that everyone else uses and are proven to be legal and sound."
Grim said roughly 25 police agencies of the more than 400 across Michigan are accredited.
"We were kind of early on," he said. "I believe we were like the 10th agency that was accredited back in 2019. We're the only U.P. agency to be accredited. It's just one of those things that I believe having someone come in from another agency, having these trained assessors come and look at our department, and just make sure we're doing what we're supposed to do is important in our performance as law enforcement officers and our service to the community."
Silverthorn added that accreditation creates collaboration among agencies across the state.
"It's nice because when I come here I can steal ideas from their department and take them back to mine," he said. "(Grim) goes and does others and steals ideas from theirs."
"That's the thing, there's a community of accreditation managers and assessors," Grim added. "We all work together even though we're a long ways apart because of society today, we've learned to communicate with Zoom and email and even phone calls between all of the departments that are either in the process of being accredited or are accredited. We're all trying to move our profession forward and working together is the best way to do that."
As part of the on-site assessment, officials invited public input on Wednesday. Community members were encouraged to call or write in to address the agency's ability to comply with MLEAC standards, which were made available at the department.
Public input is a critical step in the process, Silverthorn said.
"I've never had come up, but an agency could misrepresent itself on how they're seen in the community," he said. "So giving the community an opportunity to call in … we can talk to members of the community if they had issues or if they have positive or negative comments about the department. So we get an honest opinion of what the department is like and what the city is like."
According to the MLEAC website, the Ironwood Public Safety Department and Ishpeming Police Department are two other U.P. agencies that are in the process of seeking accreditation.
Silverthorn said all signs point to MPD maintaining accreditation.
"Marquette is a squared-away department for sure," he said. "I've known these guys for awhile and they're good at what they do. They want to be cutting edge and that's a big part of it. They're not independent on themselves, they're out there in the law enforcement community associating with other departments and trying to get other ideas on ways to do things. To not be prideful and listen to other people's ideas and take other people's ideas is helpful, because that way you're getting the best possible solutions to problems."
"As far as the accreditation process, we have a lot of buy-in from the officers here and I'm super proud of that with my agency," Grim added. "They're all super professional and they all want to constantly get better. Being accredited, it keeps us on the forefront of modern policing. And I think as far as our department goes, I'm just super proud of everybody that's here contributing to it."
For more information about the Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission and to view its best practice standards, visit www.michiganpolicechiefs.org.
Ryan Spitza can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. His email address is rspitza@miningjournal.net.
Source: https://www.miningjournal.net/news/front-page-news/2021/11/marquette-police-department-seeks-mleac-reaccreditation/
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