UW-Madison Police Department joins an elite segment of law enforcement

The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) has awarded the University of Wisconsin–Madison Police Department full advanced law enforcement accreditation.

This achievement represents the completion of an agency-wide period of self evaluation and a thorough review by a team of independent assessors.  The UW–Madison Police Department met or exceeded 464 standards accepted by the national law enforcement community.  The department accomplished this with a 98.6 rating; the highest of any agency in its grouping.

The accreditation achievement demonstrates a commitment to professional standards in policy and in practice. The process takes an agency approximately three years to complete.

The department is now one of only three law enforcement agencies within the state of Wisconsin that are CALEA accredited.  The other two agencies are the city of Oshkosh police and city of Beloit police.  There are more than 18,000 police departments in the United States alone and CALEA has awarded accreditation to just more than 800 agencies worldwide.

The certificate of accreditation is for three years and will be reviewed continuously to verify compliance with professional standards.