MOUNT HOLYOKE PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT
IS FIRST COLLEGE DEPARTMENT TO
RECEIVE STATE CERTIFICATION

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 hearing on Thursday, June 12 at the Reading, MA headquarters of the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. Certification status was granted for a period of three years.

"I am very proud of the fact the 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 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.

As of April 2003, there are four agencies certified and eleven agencies accredited in Massachusetts. There are 73 agencies in the process of self-assessment for certification and 67 in the self-assessment phase for accreditation, most of which are in the central or eastern part of the state.

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 towards accreditation by May 2004.

"The certification process was extremely beneficial to the department. It allowed us to review our policies and procedures and to ensure that they meet national standards for law enforcement agencies. At the same time, these standards must represent the way the department actually does its day-to-day work. We had every officer and member of the department review all of the updates and provide suggestion and comments."

Ominsky praised the work of accreditation manager Barbara Arrighi and assistant accreditation manager Jeanne M. Tripp, along with student intern Stephanie Liotta '03, for their excellent work in the process. Arrighi is associate director of public safety, while Tripp, an alumna of the College, is office and systems coordinator.