The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) awarded the Des Peres Department of Public Safety International Accreditation for the first time in the Department’s history on May 4, 2019. Since 1979, CALEA has been recognized as the “Gold Standard” representing best practices in law enforcement and this designation recognizes a police agency’s commitment to excellence in law enforcement.
“The CALEA designation for the Department of Public Safety confirms what Des Peres residents and city officials already knew – police services provided by the Department of Public Safety are outstanding – over 90% of residents in a 2017 citizens survey expressed they were very satisfied with the quality of police and fire services in Des Peres. I want to congratulate the men and women and the leadership team in Des Peres especially Chief Eric Hall and former Chief Keith Krumm for this well-deserved recognition by CALEA”, said Mayor Mark Becker.
The Des Peres Department of Public Safety embarked on the CALEA accreditation process in June 2016 with a formal agreement to begin a 3 year process of self-assessment of department policies, procedures and practices and evaluated each against 189 best practices standards established by CALEA. The end result of that thorough evaluation was production of updated operational directives and guidelines and documentation of compliance with those new standards. In November 2018, the CALEA assessment team spent 3 days with Des Peres thoroughly examining and observing departmental police operations, interviewing departmental employees and community stakeholders and verifying compliance with standards over an extended period of time. In December 2018, the CALEA Assessment Team completed and issued their report to the CALEA Commission.
On May 4th, members of the Des Peres Department of Public Safety along with the Mayor, City Administrator and former Director of Public Safety Krumm traveled to the CALEA National Conference held this year in Hunstville, Alabama and participated in a hearing before the accreditation committee following which the department was granted unconditional international accreditation (see image below).
There are only 35 police agencies in the State of Missouri that have achieved CALEA certification. Des Peres is proud to be recognized with outstanding police agencies in our region who have achieved CALEA Accredited including St Louis City Police, the St Louis County Police Department and police agencies in this county including Kirkwood, Brentwood, Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, Clayton, Creve Coeur, Florissant, Hazelwood, Maplewood, Maryland Heights, The North County Police Coop, Rock Hill, Richmond Heights, Shrewsbury, St Ann and Webster Groves.
“Remarkably, contrary to the findings by Better Together questioning the overall quality of policing in our region, 18 of the 35 police agencies accredited by CALEA are located in St Louis County. In addition, a number of other area departments (including Des Peres) have achieved a Law Enforcement Certificate through the Missouri Police Chief’s Associations as initially mandated under Section 67.387 of state law to be achieved no later than 2024”, said Mayor Mark Becker.
“On behalf of the members of the Department of Public Safety, I want to thank the Mayor, Board of Aldermen and the Des Peres community for the ongoing support of our police agency that have made achieving CALEA Accreditation possible. I want to individually recognize former Director Keith Krumm for his leadership in moving our department forward into the CALEA process and especially recognize Lieutenant Robert Willoughby who has served as our CALEA Accreditation Manager and whose hard work and commitment made this possible. Finally, this needs to be recognized for what it is – the culmination of the ongoing day-to-day work of the men and women in our Department of Public Safety who work tirelessly on behalf of the community and take great pride in their professionalism in providing not only police services but also fire and ems services to Des Peres”, said Director of Public Safety Eric Hall.
For More Information contact Douglas J. Harms, City Administrator
314-835-6110
