Round Lake drops police accredition organization

Round Lake village board trustees have approved the police department’s departure from a national law-enforcement accreditation organization for financial reasons.

Officials say they are confident Round Lake police will continue providing quality service while using updated standards and polices they gained from Virginia-based Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. The private group is commonly called CALEA.

At an informal committee meeting earlier this month, Round Lake Police Chief Michael Gillette recommended saving money by not paying a roughly $4,000 overdue invoice and dropping out of CALEA. The village board made it official at a meeting this week by voting 6-0 in favor of quitting the organization.

“The big thing was the budgetary constraints,” Mayor James Dietz said, “and we hope to follow the standards and keep our policies updated.”

In April 2009, CALEA certified village police in nearly 400 internationally accepted operation standards.

CALEA promotes its services by stating it helps police departments strengthen accountability as part of a blueprint promoting efficient use of resources. CALEA and similar accrediting operations provide updates on civil litigation involving police and other information that’s difficult for a single department to track.

W. Craig Hartley Jr., deputy director and chief of staff at CALEA, said it’s possible for Round Lake and other towns that drop out to follow standards and policies developed by the organization. However, he said, it may cease to be a priority at a police department if CALEA is out of the picture.

“There’s an adage of what gets measured, gets done,” Hartley said Friday.

Proponents say updated standards and policies that come from an outside accreditation process can lead to better results for taxpayers. They contend an accredited police department typically faces fewer lawsuits and smaller judgments because it can be proven set standards are followed.

Cliffton R. Metaxa pursued the CALEA relationship after he was hired as Round Lake’s top cop in 2005. Metaxa resigned three months after Dietz became mayor by beating Bill Gentes in the April 2009 election.

Hartley said CALEA’s membership retention rate is about 90 percent. CALEA has roughly 1,000 member law-enforcement agencies.

“We hate to lose an agency,” Hartley said. “We really do.”

At least 41 municipal police departments in Illinois pay for CALEA services, including Mundelein, Arlington Heights, Naperville, Lake Zurich, Grayslake and St. Charles.