On June 26, 2018, the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police published an update to their Accreditation Program Manual. Changes to the accreditation standards are a necessary part of the accreditation process. Since the standards themselves are built to reflect the current thinking and experience of law enforcement practitioners, they must be periodically reviewed and modified.

The update to the standards manual brings the addition of seven brand new standards. These new standards address domestic violence, drug screening, electronic social media, special event planning, New Jersey Suspicious Activity Reporting, and the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The update also makes modifications to six other existing standards.

Since the release of the manual update, the NJSACOP issued formatting updates to the manual in 2019. These formatting updates did not substantially alter any of the standards or individual bullets contained within.

If you are a Power DMS user, you received notification of the manual update through the Power DMS application within the Standards Module. Those Accreditation Managers who are still working with paper may find it a little harder to find the updates.

The following standards where added to the manual:

  • 1.3.2 – Employee Involved Domestic Violence
  • 1.3.3 – Drug Screening Personnel
  • 1.7.2 – Electronic Social Media
  • 3.5.7 – Domestic Violence Investigations and Elder Abuse
  • 3.7.7 – Special Event Planning
  • 3.7.8 – New Jersey Suspicious Activity Reporting System
  • 5.2.2 – Prison Rape Elimination Act

The manual also made modifications to the following existing standards:

  • 1.1.1 – The Written Directive System – Added a Bullet
  • 1.9.11 – Accreditation Process Management – Added Bullets
  • 3.4.2 – Recording/Tracking Calls for Service – Removed Bullets
  • 3.4.3 – Communications Protocols – Modified Bullet “F”
  • 3.6.2 – Traffic Enforcement – Removed All Bullets (Now Non-Bullet Standard)
  • 4.2.2 – Evidence Processing/Collection – Removed Several Bullets – Consolidated into Two Bullets

Would you like to learn more about these changes and implementing them? Members can go on to read “NJSACOP Accreditation Manual Update – NJPSAC Members Guide to the Updates.” ( COMING SOON )