The Impact of Agency Accreditation or Certification on Police Misconduct

Law enforcement executives have created and implemented department policies and procedures to mitigate misconduct within their agencies, yet there is currently no method to quantify the effectiveness of these measures. The purpose of this exploratory study was to understand whether written directives, policies, and procedures of nationally accredited or state-certified law enforcement agencies impact reports of police misconduct. Data were collected from 8 Georgia law enforcement agencies: 4 that were nationally accredited or state-certified and 4 that did not hold such status. The data were compiled into 8 categories based on their accumulative number of misconduct incidents per agency and analyzed utilizing an independent sample t-test. During this exploratory study, the data analyzed provide some evidence that suggests national accreditation or state-certification does promulgate accountability through adherence to standards, but the relationship was not statistically significant. Superficially, nationally accredited or state certified agencies experienced a higher percentage of incidents of misconduct being unfounded or not sustained at 38% as compared to 6% with non-accredited or certified agencies. This information offers social change implications for the law enforcement profession and opens opportunities for future research about the utility of accreditation or certification. The foundational construct of law enforcement policies, their context, the include changes over time, and contributes to reshaping how law enforcement services are provided to reduce the number of incidents of misconduct