Weber County Sheriff wants national accreditation honors for department Inspectors doing evaluation this week for award BY MARK GRAY Standard-Examiner staff mgray@standard. net OGDEN More than just a motto, the idea at the Weber County Sheriff's Office is to be the "best in the West." Come March, the department could be a step closer to achieving that title. If nothing else, it may be able to claim the title "best in the state." The department of more than 400 employees is attempting to become the only police agency in the state to be nationally accredited, a grueling three-year process that critically examines policies and procedures, operations, support services and just about everything the agency does. Three evaluators from the Com-mission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies will inspect the department with a fine-tooth comb this week. Their report will be sent to CALEA commissioners for review in March at the thrice-yearly CALEA convention. "I'm pumped for it," Weber Sheriff Brad Slater said. "I think we'll get it. Staff has worked long and hard for this, and I'm confident. "I think the public benefits by knowing we are a professional organization and we've validated our vision statement" of being a leader in the community, he said. Weber County Sheriff's Lt. Klint Anderson said he can already see improvement in the department since it decided to adhere to CALEA's 444 standards. "When (Slater) took over, he had an agenda to make us more efficient and more responsive to community needs," he said. "Like anything, if you stay at something too long, you can get stagnant. It breeds deficiency, breeds dissatisfaction. CALEA doesn't let you do that." Detective Chad Barnett said, "(Slater) is really serious about the 'best in the West' motto." About 23 percent of all police agencies in the United States are accredited and recognized as being very up-to-date in the law enforcement world. In Utah, Sandy Police Department was accredited several years ago but is no longer, leaving Utah void of a department meeting national minimum standards. The benefits, CALEA claims on its Web site, are noticeable: Accreditation ensures employee pride and morale, makes the jurisdiction more attractive to economic development and ensures a sense of well-being in the community. Aside from that, accreditation decreases the possibility of potential lawsuits by 20 percent, the organization claims. Weber County believes it. Due to the accreditation process, the sheriff's department recently got a $16,000 reduc-tion in its insurance premium, Slater said, helping to offset initial direct and indirect start-up fees totaling roughly $16,000. Not all have bought into the process though. Anderson said some deputies are not completely happy about the process. "A lot of them don't like change. Overall it's well-received," he said. Slater calls accreditation a "blueprint for organizational change." "We have a rich history, a proud history of law enforcement in this country," he said, "but we shouldn't be stuck on tradition. We need to be able to adapt to changes." Perhaps some employees are simply exhausted, considering the department built a new jail and sheriff's facility, helped provide security for the Olympics and incorporated Washington Terrace into its jurisdiction around the same time it decided to take up the accreditation process. Although Slater looked at joining CALEA 20 years ago when he was a sergeant, it took a widely publicized and controversial incident to kick-start it: The Glen Lutz case. Lutz died Oct. 16, 1999, after three sheriff's deputies hog-tied him. In a videotape of the incident that was recorded by a neighbor, deputies can be heard veiling obscenities 85 at Lutz as he was restrained on his stomach after fighting with officers who mistakenly thought he was drunk. Despite the state medical examiner ruling Lutz died of natural causes and had a heart condition, the civil case remains in deposition. "It's baring the soul a little bit, but that made me think about looking over our procedures," Slater said. In essence, the whole county benefits from an accredited agency, via search and rescue and crime scene investiga-tion units that are part of the sheriff's department, hence required to comply with CALEA, Slater said. Both are used by most agencies throughout the county. While Slater is not so bold as to say so, Anderson said accreditation gives the agency "bragging rights." "It's a major thing. It shows we're at a level of higher law enforcement standards," he said, "and it's not just us say-ing so, and it's not a rubber stamp for going through the process."