RUPD accreditation commission seeks public comments

RUPD officers standing in front of Lovette Hall

HOUSTON -- (Oct. 19, 2020) -- A public forum for community comments about the Rice University Police Department will be held during a virtual visit to campus conducted by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).

RUPD officers standing in front of Lovette Hall

The commission’s virtual visit will be part of a periodic review of RUPD’s national accreditation, a top recognition of excellence in public safety. Only 3% of all law enforcement agencies in the United States have earned CALEA accreditation.

CALEA will examine all aspects of RUPD’s policies and procedures, management, operations and support services to verify the department still meets the commission’s best practice standards. An assessment team will review written materials and conduct interviews to determine whether RUPD complies with 189 standards to maintain its accreditation status.

After the assessment team completes its review of RUPD it will report back to the commission, which will then decide if the department will maintain its accredited status. Accreditation continues for three years, during which RUPD must submit annual reports to show it continues to comply with the standards under which it was initially accredited.

The assessment team is comprised of leading public safety practitioners from similar out-of-state agencies, led by Chief Dean Tondiglia of Kent State University and Commander Ernest Knight of the University of Chicago Police Department.

The public forum will be conducted at 10 a.m. Oct. 27, via Zoom at this link:

https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/99044588684?pwd=NmhvK0UxNDNkK3BJR050NEJBV1RiQT09 (passcode: 229954).

Anyone who cannot participate in the Zoom conference can speak with the assessment team by phone Oct. 26 between 1:30-2:30 p.m. by calling (713) 348-4560 or (713) 348-6350. Written comments about RUPD’s compliance with standards for accreditation can be mailed to the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, 13575 Heathcote Blvd., Gainesville VA 20155, or emailed (using “Rice University Police Department” in the subject line) to calea@calea.org.

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This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

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Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,978 undergraduates and 3,192 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

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