LIBERTY- The Village of Liberty Police Department has been recognized by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) as an accredited law enforcement agency. The Village of Liberty Police Department is now the first police department in Sullivan County’s history to achieve this professional milestone.
The accreditation program is a voluntary program designed to improve an agency’s effectiveness, efficiency, and professionalism as well as promote training and foster public confidence in law enforcement. All police departments and sheriffs’ offices in the state are eligible to participate in the program and only around one-third have achieved the certification.
The Village of Liberty Police Department began preparing for the accreditation process by filing a formal application in January of 2022. For the next 24 months, the members of the department worked on improving operations, training, policies and the overall functioning of the department to meet the 111 standards outlined by the council.
The accreditation process involved members of an assessment team conducting over two hundred interviews and after a thorough review of all of the department’s personnel, policies, procedures, and records covering all aspects of modern day policing. The members of the assessment team unanimously recommended the department be accredited.
“I am incredibly proud of all of the hard work of the men and woman of the Village of Liberty Police Department that went into achieving this high standard,” said Chief of Police Steven D’Agata. “This recognition by the State of New York represents the culmination of our agencies’ relentless pursuit to improve itself and to offer the very best police service to residents and visitors of the Village of Liberty.”
D’Agata said that to prepare for the accreditation assessment the department improved performance and standards in almost every aspect of its operation.
“I am incredibly honored and humbled daily to be able to lead an organization with so many professionals of the highest caliber and I am thankful to the Division of Criminal Justice Services for recognizing our officers and dispatchers as such,” D’Agata concluded.
