Houghton P.D. Seeks Public Comment Toward Accreditation

Earning accreditation as  a police department is a major step toward assuring the local community that officers are well trained and ready to respond to an emergency. Later this week the city of Houghton’s police department will seek public comment, for the department becoming officially accredited. City of Houghton Police Chief John Donnelly says if the department achieves accreditation, the city would be second police department accredited in the Upper Peninsula. The other being the Marquette Police Department.

“There’s well over 100 standards that we have to meet to become accredited. What it is, is you have other departments coming in, and looking at how our policies and proceedures align with what our activities are doing. And not only do they have to line up, we have to show proof of how they line up. For example like when we handcuff somebody, we double lock the cuffs, check to make sure they’re not loose but not too tight, So we have to give an example of when we do that, and how we do that, to make sure we are doing everything right.” – John Donnelly, Chief of Police, City of Houghton Police Department

Chief Donnelly says the process of accreditation takes about two years to complete. Starting with a complete overhaul of the department’s policies and procedures to align with local, state and national standards.

“The harder part is finding someone willing to take on that daunting task. Officer Kirk Mills, and Office Manager Polly Salmi, were able and willing to take on that process of going through every asset of our department. Taking the policies and revamping them, re-writing them at times, and matching those up with the standards that have to be met to become accredited.” – John Donnelly, Chief of Police, City of Houghton Police Department

On Thursday the Houghton Police Department has asked local residents and people in the community to call in for public comment describing their interactions with the department. After public comment has ended, a separate police department will come in to complete an on site inspection of the Houghton Police Department. In order to assess the facility and the department’s procedures. And how the department’s polices compare to information gathered in public comment.

“They will be doing what is called an on site inspection of our department. They’ll go over the department, our record keeping they’ll look at our evidence. Evidence is a huge thing. Money. How we intake money, for parking permits, and things like that, to make sure we’re doing all of those things properly. From there we hope to become accredited at the Chiefs Conference coming up this fall.” – John Donnelly, Chief of Police, City of Houghton Police Department

Individuals interested in participating in the department’s accreditation public comment are asked to call 906-481-4630, on Thursday. Public comment is available for a two hour period between 9am and 11 am August 3^rd.