The Hawaiʻi County Police Department (HPD) was honored with its fourth consecutive Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA®) Advanced Law Enforcement Accreditation Award during a ceremony in Bellevue, Washington.
 
Achieving CALEA accreditation is a process in which a department must continuously demonstrate every year during a four-year cycle that it complies with more than 400 rigid CALEA® standards. It involves a dedicated team of department personnel reviewing and—when necessary—revising the department’s General Orders, policies, and procedures to ensure they all met CALEA® standards.

Every year of the accreditation process a CALEA Service Manager conducts a web-based assessment, inspecting HPD’s files and interviewing personnel. In the fourth year of the accreditation cycle, a team of certified CALEA® assessors conducts an on-island assessment, visiting district police stations and facilities, examining all aspects of the department while focusing on HPD programs, their outcomes and effectiveness.

The national assessment team, which held their on-island assessment in August, also conducted interviews with various community leaders to gauge HPD’s accreditation impact on the community.

The final step of the accreditation renewal process featured members of the department, including  Police Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz, Deputy Chief Reed Mahuna, and HPD Accreditation Section staff appearing before the national CALEA® review committee to present and answer questions about the department’s programs and outcomes. The review committee met during the CALEA® fall conference held November 8-11, 2023, in Bellevue, Washington, and announced on the final day of the conference that HPD received accreditation renewal under the CALEA® Advanced Law Enforcement Accreditation program.

During the committee review, Police Chief Moszkowicz formally recognized the department’s Accreditation Section members for their dedication and hard work in achieving this coveted recognition. The HPD Accreditation Section is led by Lieutenant Levon Stevens and staffed by Sergeant Matthew Bartz, Sergeant Brian Souki, and Clerk III Keahi Armitage.

Of the roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, only about 793 are CALEA® accredited. HPD first achieved accreditation 11 years ago, on November 17, 2012, and was reaccredited twice on November 21, 2015, and November 16, 2019.

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