Full Notification

On March 22, 2025, the Ashland Police Department received official notice of reaccreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA). The police department has met all standards set forth by CALEA for the department. Over the course of the last four years, APD participated in virtual, web-based file reviews and one final on-site assessment with an independent assessor in December 2024.
 
CALEA is a voluntary program that requires agencies to comply with over 400 state-of-the-art standards that represent the best practices in law enforcement in four basic areas: policy and procedures, administration, operations, and support services. APD has been CALEA accredited since 2008.
 
For our on-site assessment in December of 2024, four focus areas were selected. Those areas included Internal Affairs, Crime Prevention/Community Policing, Mental Health Response (Community Focus), and Collection and Processing of Evidence. The independent CALEA assessor met with multiple officers within the agency, members of the community and heard from law enforcement partners in the area. Prior to the on-site assessment, CALEA accessors reviewed volumes of documents and files for compliance with established standards.
 
The Ashland Police Department will be up for reaccreditation again in 2029. Cheryl Bookwalter, APD’s Accreditation Manager, and Captain James Shelhorse, who represented our agency in California at the annual CALEA conference, are pictured below accepting our accreditation award.