- The Harrisville Police Department, with 13 officers, earned the Utah Chiefs of Police accreditation on Wednesday.
- The yearlong process required evaluating policies, training and operations for best practices.
- Accreditation is voluntary; Harrisville prioritized it to improve community trust and standards.
HARRISVILLE, Weber County – A small police department in northern Utah has earned an accreditation process typically completed by larger agencies.
The Harrisville Police Department, which has just 13 officers, recently earned law enforcement accreditation through the Utah Chiefs of Police Association.
The process evaluates a department's policies, training and operations to ensure it meets established best practices in modern policing.
"I think it's a big deal for us because it can help with the trust between us and the community," said Harrisville Police Chief Mark Wilson.
Accreditation is voluntary and requires agencies to demonstrate not only that policies are in place, but that officers consistently follow them.
About 30 law enforcement agencies in Utah have achieved the certification.
Wilson said the department made accreditation a priority despite limited staffing and resources.
"We don't have the resources that some of the big departments have," he said. "So, this was a priority for us to make sure that we're following policy, make sure that we have policy that meets the laws, and that we're giving the community the best product we can give them."
The process, which took nearly a year to complete during its most recent push, required the department to take a close look at its own operations, including identifying areas that needed improvement.
"We did find some policies that needed to be changed and some things that we weren't probably doing that needed to be fixed," said Wilson.
Assistant Police Chief Nick Taylor said the accreditation process helped the department go beyond minimum legal requirements.
"It helped us identify some deficiencies in our policies," said Taylor. "They met the legal standard, but maybe not to our standards."
One of the changes that came out of the review involved how officers use body cameras.
"We have our officers narrate in our body cameras prior to arrival to calls because it allows for playback and gives context of what's going through their mind before they arrive on scene," said Taylor. "That's all stuff that came through accreditation."
Taylor emphasized that no outside agency forced the department to seek accreditation.
"Nobody is imposing this on us," he said. "This is something we decided to do ourselves."
The effort required participation from every member of the department, something Taylor said made the achievement especially meaningful.
"We're a smaller department, so every person plays a role in this," he said. "We don't have a full-time staff or accreditation team doing this. It takes all of us."
The department plans to display the accreditation symbol on its patrol vehicles.
"It's a stamp of approval, if you will, that we're at least trying to do the right things," said Taylor.
For residents of Harrisville, Wilson said the accreditation is meant to provide reassurance.
"We're giving the community the best product we can give them," he said.
The accreditation must be renewed every four years, meaning the department will have to continue meeting the standards moving forward.
