Accreditation

MPAC Accredited Police Department

Re-Accreditation Assessment September 2020

We are pleased to announce that, following the visit by our assessment team, the department was presented with its award for re-accreditation from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. The award period will continue through the fall of 2023. Currently, 78 agencies in Massachusetts are accredited and another 21 are certified. Achievement of this standard provides our agency a means of independent evaluation of agency operations for quality assurance. We wish to thank our assessment team for their careful review as well as the members of our department who worked hard preparing files for team, and those who were interviewed during the assessment.

Why Accreditation?

Just like hospitals, colleges, and other organizations have accreditation programs, accreditation assures our communitiy that the department meets the standards of their field.

  • Accreditation assures the operational readiness of the Public Safety and Service department.
  • Accreditation assures that the department's policies and procedures and rules and regulations are in line with modern professional standards.
  • Accreditation promotes a strong emphasis on officer safety, training, and professional hiring and promotional procedures that assure professional and top-calibre service to our communities.
  • Accreditation provides an ongoing, independent evaluation of the Public Safety and Service department.
  • Accreditation improves the quality of individuals who apply for employment with our agency.
  • Accreditation provides each member of the department with a sense of pride, knowing that their agency has met such high, professional standards.

Mount Holyoke College was first certified by the Commission in 2003 and accredited in 2004, becoming the first college or university to obtain those statuses. During our review assessors visited our department spaces on all three campuses. As of August 2017, only 70 agencies statewide have been accredited, and 23 have been certified of the over 300 municipal, campus, transit and hospital agencies in the state.

For more about the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission, please visit their website at http://www.masspoliceaccred.net/.