Accreditation Team Seeks Input On Shelby County Sheriff's Office

SHELBY COUNTY, AL — A team of assessors from the Commission for Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies is seeking input from the public when it conducts a virtual assessment of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

The assessment begins March 8, and will examine all aspects of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office’s policy and procedures, management, operations and support services.

The assessors will verify that the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office meets the Commission’s state of the art standards as part of a voluntary process to maintain accreditation, a symbol of law enforcement professional excellence.

As part of the assessment, agency personnel and members of the community are invited to offer comments at a virtual public information session March 8 at 6 p.m. This session will be conducted via Zoom. Anyone wishing to participate in the meeting may contact Capt. Mark Bishop by email at mbishop@shelbyso.com for additional information on how to participate.

If for some reason a person cannot speak at the public information session, but would still like to provide comments to the assessment team, he or she may do so by telephone by calling 205-610-7992 on March 8 between the hours of 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to reach the assessment team directly.

Telephone comments as well as appearances at the public information session are limited to 10 minutes and must address the agency’s ability to comply with CALEA’s standards. A copy of the standards may be requested from Capt. Mark Bishop.

Persons wishing to offer written comments about the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office’s ability to meet the standards are requested to write to: The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement, Inc. (CALEA), 13575 Heathcote Boulevard, Suite 320 Gainesville, Virginia 20155.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office has to comply with approximately 164 standards in order to gain accredited status.

"I remain committed to providing the highest level of professional law enforcement services to the residents and visitors of Shelby County, and I believe that our voluntary participation in CALEA accreditation is a key part of accomplishing this goal," Sheriff John Samaniego said.

Accreditation is currently for four years, and during this period, the agency is subject to annual inspections of accreditation files and must submit annual reports attesting continued compliance with those standards under which it was initially accredited.