The Woods Cross Police Department has been through an exhaustive process to complete 178 policy standards to receive accreditation by the Utah Chiefs of Police Association. At last week’s City Council meeting, the Association awarded them as an accredited agency.

“One of my goals as a Police Chief was to become accredited,” said Woods Cross Police Chief James Bigelow. “There are 178 policy standards that have to be met. For each we have to show proof that we’re doing them.”

For example, the early intervention system, he said. “We have to give them a picture showing us using it. For an employee evaluation we have to show that those have been done. We have to show that we have the policy and that we’re actually doing it.”

There is an outside assessor, usually an officer or retired chief that looks at everything, Bigelow said. “He goes through the documents and passes them off. If we haven’t met something he tells us to go back and do it.”

It has to be reevaluated every four years, he said. “We have to do all of the proofs again and we have to stay up on everything. If there are standards changes that we haven’t done in the past we have to make those. There were nine new federal changes this year.”

Having the accreditation prioritizes them for grants, said Bigelow. “If another agency that is not accredited applies for a grant we move ahead of them on the list. It also makes the department stronger to help with liability for the city and county.”

Although they are all important, Bigelow said there are a few standards that stand out. “Use of force is one of the biggest liabilities police agencies have. We follow the state and national standards on that.”

Mental health resources for officers is another important standard, he said. Also, annual training. We want to make sure we’re trained how we should be.”

Another standard is what goes into the hiring process, said Bigelow. “We look into the applicant’s background and run it through a national database to check where they worked, etc.”

Bigelow said the duty to intervene standard is also important. “If an officer sees misconduct they can get the officer away from the situation so it doesn’t escalate.”

Bigelow said he appreciates the entire department for their work on the accreditation process. “I want to thank them for their patience and dedication to see this get done. I also appreciate the support of the mayor, city council and city manager.”