THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE STANDARDS FOR CERTIFICATION ON SAFE POLICING FOR COMMUNITIES
The U.S. Department of Justice
Standards for Certification on Safe Policing for Communities By: Scott L. Bohn, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association
Through President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order No. 13929, the U.S. Attorney General, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, will allocate Department of Justice discretionary grant funding only to state, local, tribal, and university or college law enforcement agencies that have obtained (or are in the process of seeking) credentials certifying that they meet certain mandatory standards for safe policing, to be set by the U.S. Attorney General.
PA CHIEFS OF POLICE ASSOCIATION
The United States Attorney General has appointed The Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association to be the” Independent Credentialing Body” for the Commonwealth under the standards for certification on safe policing for safe communities. As the Commonwealth credentialing body, the Association will be processing requests from any law enforcement agencies who would like to become certified in this program. The certification program is a basic one. The first thing to know is the program is NOT mandatory. Only agencies who apply for discretionary federal grant funds will need to be certified. If you apply for a federal grant of any kind, you need to be certified. If you are unsure if you will need to be certified, get certified, just in case. If you want to become a certified agency, contact Andrea Sullivan at asullivan@pachiefs.org if you would like to get started in the certification process. She will email a letter template for you to print on your agency letterhead. Be sure to complete the appropriate information, sign and return it to her at asullivan@ pachiefs.org. Please understand we cannot accept any letters that are incomplete and/or not on agency letterhead. The signature must be your handwritten signature. These are DOJ requirements. If you fail to comply with these requirements, the letter will be returned to you.
Only agencies who apply for discretionary federal grant funds will need to be certified. If you apply for a federal grant of any kind, you need to be certified. If you are unsure if you will need to be certified, get certified, just in case. There is some confusion over which letter template you should use in this request. A few agencies, including the DOJ, are sending out or posting templates that we are NOT accepting. The ONLY template we will accept is the one PCPA will send to you. This template letter asks you to do a self-assessment of your agency’s “use of force” policy. There are 2 mandatory conditions that you must have in your policy: • The policy must adhere to all applicable federal, state, and local laws. • Prohibits the use of choke holds, except where the use of deadly force is allowed by law. You will also see 12 discretionary conditions with check blocks. When completing the form, check only the blocks
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