Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Houghton Police Chief John Donnelly, Cpl. Kirk Mills and office manager Polly Salmi hold the certificate of accreditation from the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. The department recently became the 63rd in the state, and the second in the Upper Peninsula, to be accredited through the MACP, something only about 10% of Michigan departments have accomplished.

HOUGHTON — Only about 10% of Michigan police departments have been accredited through the Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Program.

Houghton is one of them. The department, the 63rd in the state and the second in the Upper Peninsula, received a certificate of accreditation at a ceremony during Wednesday’s City Council meeting. The accreditation is good for three years.

“Every single one of the calls for police reforms of departments, your department has already done every single one of those,” said Bob Stevenson, executive director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. “And I think it’s important to point out that they did this voluntarily. They started the process before the calls for the reforms were done. So it is a tremendous professional accomplishment. I look forward to the day that all the police departments in the state of Michigan will follow the lead of the Houghton Police Department.”

The first step — often the hardest one, said MACP President Ron Wiles — is wanting to do it. Once they’ve decided that, departments undergo two years of self-analysis. They’re given 108 professional standards to meet, from use of force standards to protocols for storing evidence. Counting subsections, there’s about 800 tasks in all.

The three-year process was a “heavy lift” requiring buy-in and a commitment to improvement from the entire department, Chief John Donnelly said.

“Every officer had to review every single policy, every single procedure,” said Houghton Police Chief John Donnelly. “Police officers do not get excited when you tell them that they’re doing something wrong, and that we’ve got to change things. That was not an easy process.”

He credited the department, particularly office manager Polly Salmi and Cpl. Kirk Mills, who he said provided momentum when the review was sruggling to gain ground.

“He got through all those proofs,” he said. “I was trying to assist them but within about 10 minutes of looking at that computer, he kind of told me to get out of the way. He and Polly, along with all the officers. It wasn’t just a two- or three-person (effort). Everybody had to make change, everybody had to try to make an improvement. So I couldn’t be more proud of the department as a whole.”

Once the department decides it’s ready, it schedules an on-site hearing, Wiles said. He then sends two trained assessors to Houghton to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the department.

“They look at the written directives of the agency, they look at the standards, they look at the proofs, make sure they’re all in compliance,” he said. “If they’re not, they don’t achieve accreditation.”

After Houghton passed the on-site inspection, Houghton moved on to an interview with the Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission, where they were granted full accreditation.

Wiles’ fifth step: doing it all again.

“They made a promise to you, the department, the community,” he said. “Now it’s time for them to keep that promise. So in three years, I’m gonna send another team of assessors to the department. They’re gonna do a top to bottom review of that department again to make sure they’re still in compliance with the standards.”