The St. Joseph Police Department was recognized recently as a Missouri certified law enforcement agency.

Sgt. Todd Derr is the Policy Compliance and Certification Manager for the St. Joseph Police Department. Derr said there are over 200 standards for law enforcement agencies to meet to be certified.

“Some of the standards cover internal affairs, use of force, fiscal management, things of that nature, and there’s specific criteria under all of those, of course that’s just a few,” Derr said.

St. Joseph Police Chief Chris Connally said the three-year accreditation process culminated with an on-site inspection with five assessors who spent a day and a half going through proofs of compliance, riding along with officers and more.

“Just taking a thorough from top to bottom look at the department partly to make sure that we do what we’re saying that we’re doing,” Connally said. “It’s a statement of the professionalism of the men and women of the St. Joseph Police Department. I hope that it demonstrates to our community that we’re always striving to reach the highest standards and to put the most professional services together and have our personnel perform at the highest standards that we can.”

The St. Joseph Police Department was recognized in Jefferson City on Thursday, Dec. 7.