.Sebastian PD Excelsior Recognition from CFA
Sebastian– The Sebastian Police Department is proud to announce that it was re-accredited Wednesday and awarded the prestigious Excelsior Recognition by the The Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation (CFA).
This was the sixth round of accreditation for Indian River County’s largest populated City, which joined the process in 1999. The agency must meet the requirements of CFA’s program consistently throughout each cycle. An accreditation cycle is a three year period that culminates in a major inspection called an assessment. Assessments are conducted by a three person team consisting of professionals from outside agencies. The assessment team spends several days reviewing and inspecting all aspects of the agency’s policies and practices to ensure compliance with hundreds of CFA’s standards. The team then produces a comprehensive report on the result of the assessment and presents their findings to the Commission panel.
The Commission panel is comprised of 5 Police Chiefs and 5 Sheriffs, a Judge, County Commissioner, Florida League of Cities Representative, State Agency Inspector General and State Agency Law Enforcement Chief.
The achievement of Excelsior Recognition means the agency not only met the 263 standards required to be accredited, but has repeatedly met those requirements six terms in a row; five re-accreditations without any corrections or conditions. Essentially it requires a perfect score over the course of over 15 years. There are two key benchmarks that must be met for an agency to earn Excelsior Recognition: Commitment to Accreditation and Excellence in Accreditation (for more details see attached Excelsior Recognition statement below). These are non-subjective requirements that must occur. As of November 1, less than 50 out of more than 350 law enforcement agencies in the State of Florida have achieved Excelsior Recognition.
More information on CFA, the requirements and other details can be found at the Commission’s website at https://flaccreditation.org/programrequirements.htm
“This is an agency’s accomplishment of a life-time,” said Chief Michelle Morris. “I am very proud of the collective work of both the civilian and sworn men and women of this agency. It takes the entire team working together in so many different facets of a very complex environment to make this happen. It isn’t by accident or happenchance.”
Chief Morris was the agency’s accreditation manager when initially accredited in 2002. At that time she was the Sergeant of the Detective Division and also served as the accreditation manager. In 2004 she became one of CFA’s certified assessors and inspecting more than 50 agencies over more than 10 years. In 2014, Chief Morris was appointed by the Florida Police Chief’s Association as one of the Commissioners on the Commission panel. Sebastian Police Department is committed to continuing to strive for excellence and is already working toward its next assessment in 2020.
EXCELSIOR RECOGNITION
In May of 2010, the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation, Inc. (CFA) empaneled an ad hoc Client Recognition Development Committee to develop and recommend a suitable recognition program for Florida criminal justice agencies which have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the Florida accreditation process. An important focus of this initiative was to develop a non-subjective recognition program that recognizes agencies with criteria based upon two key benchmarks.
Commitment to Accreditation – Candidate agencies shall have been awarded five successful reaccreditation cycles by the Commission; and
Excellence in Accreditation – A candidate agency’s reaccreditation interval shall only be credited toward this new recognition status if conditions were not assessed by the Commission.
With these criteria in place, the committee recommended the name of this new exceptional level of achievement would be Excelsior Recognition. The word Excelsior is a Latin adjective meaning “higher” or “loftier,” used in English as an interjection with a poetic meaning of “ever upward.”
On July 1, 2010, the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation formally adopted the committee’s recommendations. The Excelsior Recognition program became the highest level of achievement in Florida accreditation a criminal justice agency can receive.
Today, the Excelsior Recognition program recognizes some of the finest criminal justice agencies in the State of Florida. It is a demonstrated level of commitment to the Florida Accreditation process unparalleled in the criminal justice profession.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then,
is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
