CAMDEN – The Camden County Police Department has been accredited by a law enforcement commission that describes its approval as “the gold standard in public safety.”

The department, which was launched in May 2013, is the first in Camden County to be endorsed by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, or CALEA, officials said Thursday.

Police Chief Scott Thomson called the accreditation “an outstanding accomplishment” that “underscores the strong foundation of this organization.”

Just 3 percent of all New Jersey law enforcement agencies have CALEA accreditation, the department noted in a statement.

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Those agencies include police departments in Evesham and Burlington Township, as well as New Jersey State Police and Rowan University's Department of Public Safety.

CALEA, formed in 1979, announced the accreditation of 49 public safety agencies Wednesday during a conference in Huntsville, Alabama.

The commission says its programs allow accredited organizations “to voluntarily meet an established set of professional standards,” including the use of “reports and analyses to make fact-based and informed management decisions.”

Other standards include the use of “comprehensive and uniform written directives” to define authority, performance and responsibilities, as well as the “continuous pursuit of excellence through annual reviews and other assessment measures.”

Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. described the four-year accreditation as “another marker of success” for a department that emphasizes community policing.

CALEA's review included input critical of the department from the Camden County branch of the NAACP.

"We expressed our concerns," Darnell Hardwick, a past president of the civil rights organization, said Friday.

In a letter to CALEA, Hardwick had asserted "transparency and accountability are lacking" at the county department.

The NAACP and other critics had opposed the department's formation, arguing it denied city residents the right to choose their own police force. Opponents also contended the county agency was intended to break the union at a city police force that was more racially diverse.

Advocates said the county force would put more officers on city streets and would introduce innovations to bolster public safety.

The department, which has faced high turnover rates, currently has about 350 officers. That compares to about 270 officers in the last days of the city police force.

The county department began patrolling Camden one year after the city saw a record 67 homicides under a municipal police force depleted by layoffs.

Camden had 20 homicides in the first 11 months of 2018, with other major crimes also decreasing, according to the most recent statistics from the New Jersey State Police.

The numbers show declines of 20.4 percent for violent crime and 10.7 percent for nonviolent crime in the year through November. That includes year-to-year decreases of 9.1 percent for homicides, 24.1 percent for assaults and 19.7 percent for burglaries.

Overall crime fell by 14.3 percent in the 2018 period, after dropping by 5.5 percent in 2017 and 2.2 percent one year earlier.

The county department will now pursue an advanced accreditation from CALEA, according to Thomson.

“It’s imperative to this agency that we continue to fine tune our policies and procedures to advance our standing with CALEA and keep our long-term vision in sight,” he said.

Jim Walsh: @jimwalsh_cp; 856-486-2646; jwalsh@gannettnj.com

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