Manchester PD CALEA Accreditation Hearing

[ReverendRyan]

The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) arrived Saturday, December 13, 2008 to examine all aspects of the Manchester Police Department's policies, procedures, management, operations and support services.

As part of the process, the Manchester community, department employees, as well as any member of the general public is invited to comment on the agencies compliance with standards by phone or by appearance at a public hearing session. Phone calls can be made to 603-628-6111 and will be taken by assessors on Monday December 15, 2008 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. The public hearing will be held that evening at 7:00 PM at the Public Service community room located at 780 Commercial Street, first floor, in Manchester. Telephone comments as well as appearances at the public information session are limited to 10 minutes and must address the department's ability to comply with CALEA standards. A copy of the standards is available at the Manchester Police Department. Inquiries should be directed to Accreditation Manager Gregory Murphy at 668-8711.

The MPD has, by their actions, made it very clear that their CALEA standards are for the purposes of accreditation only and will only be followed in the real world when convenient. The most obvious cases are inventory control and illegal detentions and searches.

Please join us in expressing our concerns that the Manchester Police Department has no intent to follow its own guidelines.

Monday, December 15, 2008
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Public Service community room
780 Commercial Street, first floor
Manchester, NH

[FTL_Ian]

Nice.  Please let us know how this goes.

[doobie]

Unless I have power tonight, it is unlikely I will attend.  I hope it goes poorly for the MPD.

[KBCraig]

I hope it goes poorly for the MPD.

Don't count on it. Government "accreditation" agencies are not the ostensibly objective, independent, impartial judges that free marketeers would expect. Instead, they're an insider's protection racket designed to ward off lawsuits.

This audit is not a chance to air complaints to an independent oversight agency. They are not a watchdog group. These audits are a sham: they are about one thing only: paperwork and policy, and MPD's adherence to CALEA's standards for both. Evidence --rock-solid evidence-- of MPD's policies, paperwork, procedures, or adherence to any of the above not complying with CALEA standards is the only thing they'll entertain. Crackdowns on graffiti and park curfews is not within their purview.

Failure to pay dues is about the only way to fail an accreditation audit. We just had one last week where I work. Passed with flying colors! We're so awesome! The family of the fellow who died last week after misdiagnosed e. coli and sepsis can't even think of suing us now!

Accreditation exists so that when a LE agency is sued, they can say, "But, we can't be bad, we're accredited! Everything we do is certified to be in accordance with national standards!" Of course, the flip side is that if they're not accredited, the accrediting organization is perfectly willing to testify for the other side, about how the respondents failed to meet basic, nationally-recognized standards.

As I said, it's a taxpayer-funded protection racket. The departments appoint the commission members and pay handsomely to be accredited.

[William]

Wish I had known sooner.

[Tom Ploszaj]

Could a group plan to consolidate this information including any additional MPD disregards of RSA's in 2009 for media and public attention for the next MPD CALDEA?  Are there any other CALEA accreditation hearings in NH that should be looked into far enough ahead of time to organize a public response bringing any accreditation farce into question?   

[MattLeft]

Ryan & Ivy did well.  Although 99% of the speakers were badge-toting bureaucrats who turned the proceedings into a Manchester PD love-fest.  Apparently, we have the GREATEST POLICE FORCE IN THE WORLD patrolling our streets. Lot of federal goons, too.

[Bald Eagle]

The panel of three CALEA members told us that the commission would be accepting letters in regards to the Manchester Police Department's accreditation.  Any comments reported or written will be considered.  Send these letters to the Commission at:

CALEA Commission
10302 Eaton Place
Suite 100
Fairfax, VA 22030

I, personally, would highly recommend that those who were unable to attend last night's meeting write a letter to the commission.  Please remember, letters should address violations of CALEA guidelines.  In my case, because Officer Brown violated RSA's, I reflected how violating those laws violated his Oath, which is a violation of CALEA guidelines.  If anyone needs copies of Manchester PD's CALEA guidelines, email Gregory Murphy, Accreditation Manager.  gmurphy@manchesternh.gov   I have a few, but not all of them.

[Fluff and Stuff]

This was an interesting event and some very interesting news came out of it.  Thank goodness Ryan organized citizens going to this event.  Without Ryan's work, there would have been no plain citizens at this public event.

[J’raxis 270145]

Got some video of this [that'll be up probably tomorrow, Friday at the latest].

The machine that I do the video processing on had a hard-drive crash. Back in order now. That's the second time OSX's FileVault thing has flaked out on me when dealing with extremely large files...

[J’raxis 270145]

And they're up finally:—

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuBuS00x-5Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uxd5MxOzdk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YazWyjSsIDU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLZqgE3UE8k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikQWYCgYza8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P41yypjtesg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw1su5_j_Fk

[doobie]

Is this an MPD officer?