August
29, 2003
Mount
Holyoke Public Safety Department Is First College Police Force
to Receive State Certification
| 
Members
of the Department of Public Safety: (left to right) Frank
Allen, Barbara Arrighi, Kevin Fournier, and Jeanne Tripp
’90. |
Mount
Holyoke College’s Department of Public Safety became the
first college or university police force in the commonwealth to
gain state certification by a police oversight commission. The
Department of Public Safety received the designation at a ceremony
on Thursday, June 12, at the Reading headquarters of the Massachusetts
Police Accreditation Commission. Certification status was granted
for a period of three years.
“I am very proud
of the fact that Mount Holyoke College public safety is the first
certified college or university in the state,” said Director
of Public Safety Paul Ominsky. “I believe this demonstrates
the College’s commitment to safety and security on our campus.
Public safety is a professional campus law-enforcement agency
that works closely with our community to maintain very high levels
of safety on our campus.”
“Achieving certification from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation
Commission is considered a very significant accomplishment and
is a recognition that is highly regarded by the law-enforcement
community,” said Donna Taylor Mooers, executive director
of the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. “Participating
in the state’s program and achieving certification allows
departments such as Mount Holyoke College’s Department of
Public Safety to demonstrate that they are among the finest in
the state.”
The Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission is part of the
Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and sets standards
for the state’s law-enforcement agencies wishing to become
certified or accredited. The Massachusetts program is based on
national standards set by the Commission on Accreditation for
Law Enforcement Agencies. Achieving certification or accreditation—the
standards for which are applied to all state, municipal, and college
agencies—shows a department has met the standard of excellence
expected of police agencies in the state.
Certification and accreditation also allow an independent evaluation
of an agency’s operations to ensure departments are operating
in a professional, standard manner and to enable an agency to
judge its performance. The certification level was developed in
2001 to aid agencies that wanted to be recognized for their caliber
and wished to start the process of accreditation.
Certification standards require policies, procedures or written
directives on agency direction, organization, and structure; personnel
policies; fiscal management; hiring practices; training and career
development; performance management; patrol procedures; investigation
procedures; emergency response; internal affairs policies; arrest
procedures; and evidence procedures.
Two staff members in public safety are now trained as assessors
and will be reviewing other agencies, primarily other colleges
and universities and municipalities in western Massachusetts,
to assist them in completing the program.
According to Ominsky, certification results from the high quality
of his officers and staff.
“We have a very professional staff who attend the State
Police Academy for 16 weeks for their initial training,”
Ominsky said. “As a part of our staff development plan,
we have officers attend yearly updates and specialized training
courses to maintain their training and meet state standards. Now
that we are certified, we will be working on moving toward accreditation
by May 2004.”
Ominsky praised the work of accreditation manager Barbara Arrighi
and assistant accreditation manager Jeanne M. Tripp ’90,
along with student intern Stephanie Liotta ’03, for their
excellent work in the process. Arrighi is associate director of
public safety; Tripp is office and systems coordinator.
The
counter is
1,868
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