Accreditation

Accreditation is a progressive and time-proven way of helping institutions evaluate and improve their overall performance. To be fully accredited by the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Accreditation Group (WILEAG), a police department has to achieve compliance of all 210 applicable standards. There are over 500 municipal police departments in the state of Wisconsin, and only 42 are fully accredited.

The Neenah Police Department completed its inaugural accreditation for a 2016-2018 accreditation cycle and is continuing to collect documentation and review policies for the 2019-2021 accreditation cycle.

On June 16, 2020, President Trump issued Executive Order 13929: Safe Policing for Safe Communities. Part of the executive order instructs that the US Attorney General will allocate Department of Justice discretionary grant funding only to those State and local law enforcement agencies that have sought or are in the process of seeking appropriate credentials from a reputable independent credentialing body certified by the Attorney General. The Attorney General’s standards for certification shall require independent credentialing bodies to, at a minimum, confirm that:

• The State or local law enforcement agency’s use-of-force policies adhere to all applicable Federal, State, and local laws; and
• The State or local law enforcement agency’s use-of-force polices prohibit the use of chokeholds except in those situations where deadly force is allowed by law.

Through the summer and fall of 2020, WILEAG had completed the process of being approved by the Attorney General’s office as the primary independent credentialing body for Wisconsin. The Neenah Police Department has reviewed policies, which were already in compliance with the executive order, and submitted to WILEAG to be certified as compliant with the executive order.

For more information on WILEAG, click here.