Page 7 - The Scoop February 2019

THE SCOOP | FEBRUARY 2019

OIS Receives Re-certification

Congratulations and hooray! The Office of Investigative Services (OIS)
recently received notice that it had passed its on-site re-certification
assessment as a State Certified Law Enforcement Agency.

OIS originally received State Certification through the Georgia Association
of Chiefs of Police in January of 2016. The certification process requires
that a Law Enforcement Agency adhere to over 129 commonly accepted
professional standards and that the agency be re-assessed every 3 years to
ensure continued compliance with those standards. The agency’s operations
and policies undergo a review by trained assessors and the agency is
required to show documentation that they are in compliance. Once the
assessors complete their on-site review, they submit their findings and
recommendation to the Joint Review Committee for final approval. The
standards which the agency is responsible for adhering to range from simply
having a Mission Statement and Code of Conduct to procedures on how to handle everything from
general Law Enforcement procedures such as Arrest and Search and Seizure, to Use of Force and
Bomb Threat incidents. In November of 2018 a “Mock Assessment” was conducted by a trained
State Assessor to identify any areas that needed additional documentation or explanation prior to
the true assessment being conducted in December. After the Mock Assessment, the OIS team,
led by Investigator II Calvin Heard who is the Certification Manager, made some final adjustments
to prepare for the true assessment. On December 5th and 6th of 2018, the assessment team of
Valerie Johnson (John’s Creek Police Department) and Detective Julieann Garcia (Chamblee Police
Department) reviewed OIS operations and policies. Afterwards, they made a recommendation to
the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police Joint Review Committee that the Georgia Department of
Driver Services Office of Investigative Services be re-certified. The committee reviewed the report
from this on-site assessment and on December 20th approved their recommendation for OIS re-
certification. OIS will have to undergo another on-site assessment in December of 2021. Like any
successful organization, the State Certification Program continually makes changes to improve. For
the next on-site assessment, OIS will be responsible for at least 4 additional standards which have
been added to the program. Out of 1,176 total Law Enforcement Agencies in the State of Georgia,
only 129 have achieved State Certification. DDS OIS is one of only two State Agencies to achieve this
honor, with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation being the other one.

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