The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) serves as the premier credentialing association for public safety agencies and provides accreditation services for law enforcement organizations, public safety communication centers, public safety training academies, and campus security agencies. The standards are promulgated by a board of 21 commissioners, representing a full spectrum of public safety leadership. The assessment process includes extensive self-assessment, annual remote web-based assessments, and quadrennial site-based assessments. Additionally, candidate agencies are presented to the Commission for final consideration and credentialing.

The Law Enforcement Accreditation process focuses on standards that provide best practices related to life, health, and safety procedures for the agency. These standards are considered foundational for contemporary law enforcement agencies.
The program provides the framework for addressing high risk issues within a contemporary environment, and ensures officers are prepared to meet basic community service expectations and prepared to manage critical events.

CALEA Accreditation is a voluntary process and participating public safety agencies, by involvement, have demonstrated a commitment to professionalism. The program is intended to enhance organization service capacities and effectiveness, serve as a tool for policy decisions and management, promote transparency and community trust, and establish a platform for continuous review.  

The Goodyear Police Department is currently in the process of seeking its initial accreditation as a candidate agency, and is currently in the self-assessment phase of the process. Self-assessment refers to the internal, systematic analysis of an agency's operations, management and practices to determine if it complies with applicable standards. Self-assessment requires the careful review of the program-specific CALEA standards in making these determinations. CALEA will confirm compliance for initial accreditation through a remote, web-based file review and site-based assessments.

Additional information on the accreditation process can be found at www.calea.org.

CALEA Accreditation is the Gold Standard for Public Safety Agencies and represents a commitment to excellence.

What is Accreditation
The CALEA Accreditation programs provide public safety agencies with an opportunity to voluntarily meet an established set of professional standards, which require:
 
• Comprehensive and uniform written directives that clearly define authority, performance, and responsibilities.
• Reports and analyses to make fact-based and informed management decisions.
• Preparedness to address natural or man-made critical incidents.
• Community relationship-building and maintenance.
• Independent review by subject matter experts.
• Continuous pursuit of excellence through annual reviews and other assessment measures.

Benefits to Citizens
• Accreditation demonstrates the commitment of the agency to professionalism in the law enforcement field.
• Accreditation assures the community that its law enforcement agency is committed to the provision of services of the highest quality, and that its policies and procedures are effective, responsive and up-to-date.
• Accreditation commits the agency to a broad range of programs of direct benefit to the public as well as policies and procedures to cope with man-made or natural disasters.
• Accreditation promotes community cooperation and understanding.

CALEA Portal
The CALEA accreditation efforts are an ongoing process. CALEA maintains an access portal for the Goodyear Police Department that allows for comment and feedback with regard to candidate agencies seeking initial accreditation or reaccreditation status.

The access portal for the Goodyear Police Department (AZ) may be found at https://cimrs2.calea.org/1338. 

The purpose of the public portal is to receive comments regarding an agency's compliance with CALEA standards, engagement in the service community, delivery of public safety services, and overall candidacy for accredited status. These comments can be in the form of commendations or concerns. The overall intent of the accreditation process is to provide the participating agency with information to support continuous improvement, as well as foster the pursuit of professional excellence.

IMPORTANT: CALEA is not an investigatory body and subsequently the public portal should not be used to submit information for such purposes. Additionally, there will be no response other than acknowledgment of submissions; however, the information will be considered in context to its relevancy to compliance with standards and the tenets of CALEA® Accreditation.