Yale Security CALEA accreditation in the home stretch

Yale Security started working towards its first CALEA (Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies) accreditation almost two years ago. Attaining this accreditation shows objective evidence of an organization’s commitment to excellence in leadership, resource management, and service delivery.

Throughout this process, a small internal team has worked on the initial enrollment, doing an extensive review of all the department’s policies and processes and then conducting mock assessments. Once those steps were completed, the commission’s auditors were invited to do their web and on-site review and assessment.

That two-day assessment included the auditors doing a virtual visit of the campus and interviewing Yale Security officers, staff members, and campus stakeholders and took place in early December 2021. As part of the on-site exam, the auditors focused their interviews on four areas: recruitment and selection, communications, patrol procedures, and training. After completing the assessment, the auditors took their findings back to the CALEA commission. In early January, Yale Security received a report of their findings.

“The report is comprehensive, and we are excited with their findings. They interviewed a mix of staff, including newer hires and those with many years of service so they got a good history of the department and how far it has come,” said Tom Madera, assistant director, Yale Security Operations. “The report praises our training practices, and overall is very favorable. We will find out if we are accredited at the CALEA conference in March.”

The CALEA commission does a final review of the report’s findings. Approval is revealed at the annual conference during the last interview between the CALEA commission and Yale Security’s accreditation team. “If approved, it is announced at the event; it’s a big deal. We are looking forward to it,” said Tom. 

If approved, Yale Security will be reassessed for compliance every four years to show proof of compliance. Also, they will join the ranks of a tiny group, only four, of non-sworn and unarmed security departments that are currently accredited.

Many thanks to the dedicated team working on this two-year project:

• Kindra Graham, security manager, Yale Security Operations
• Tom Madera, assistant director, Yale Security Operations
• Richard Nucci, senior security manager, Yale Security Operations