A real credit to the force
After a nearly eightyear process, the Woonsocket police department reached the ranks of the accredited in Rhode Island.
WOONSOCKET — It was a difficult process, taking nearly eight years to complete, but the police department this week finally celebrated its success in becoming another Rhode Island Police Accreditation Commission-certified agency, one of 47 accredited law enforcement organizations in the state.
A ceremony noting the department’s milestone was held at the police station on Clinton Street and included a presentation of an accreditation plaque by Col. Stephen McCartney, chief of the Warwick Police Department and a member of the Commission, and former Cumberland Police Capt. Christine Crocker, the commission’s executive director.
But it was the praise Chief Thomas F. Oates, III, and his department members received over their accreditation accomplishment that truly marked their success in ranking of 21st out of all of the accredited agencies. Woonsocket Police Lt. Normand Galipeau also received special recognition as the department’s accreditation coordinator and a persistent promoter of the department standards and review process.
McCartney also commended Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt and the City Council for their support of the department as it ramped up its accreditation effort in recent years and achieved its goal of instituting best law enforcement practices and oversight.
“There was a lot of hard work that was put into this and the credit goes to the mayor and the council for your great support, because you can’t get it done without the support of the elected leadership in your city,” McCartney said.
He also praised Oates’ commitment to the process and that of his command staff, and called Galipeau “the yeoman, he is the guy who had to carry the torch but he did a great job,” McCartney said.
And, the “men and women” of the Woonsocket Police Department overall did their part in the daily performance of their duties, he noted.
“Once again, you can talk the talk all you want but it really comes down to walking the walk and you have obviously proved that, so congratulations to all of you for all of the hard work that you do,” McCartney said.
Achieving accreditation requires work, he explained, and that work comes on top of all of the routine duties the department members put in each day, according to McCartney.
“It is tough enough when you have to go out there and answer your calls, do your reports, do the many things that are required of us in today’s world,” he said. “And I know that when the good chief and I were working in Providence back in the 70s and 80s, police work was a lot less complicated than it is today. So I give all the credit in the world to you, the young men and women who are out there on the street now, because it is a lot more complicated and it is a lot more sophisticated and the fact that you are out there doing the job is a credit,” McCarthy said.
Crocker also pointed to the changing law enforcement environment of today as making it all the more important that police be accredited as the professionals that they are.
“We need the right tools to do that job and to serve our communities in the best way that we can. And that is what accreditation does for us,” she said. “It gives our personnel the tools that they need to make good decisions and to do the best that they can. We call ourselves professionals and to get accredited means you are professionals because you are meeting industry recognized best practices,” she said.
Crocker said people in the community don’t always understand what accreditation represents for a department and as a result she tries to compare the process to other professional certifications.
“Would you send your child to a college and pay all of that money if they weren’t accredited? No. Are you going to have surgery in a hospital that is not accredited? No,” she said. “Why wouldn’t we want the gatekeepers of our community not to be following those industry recognized best practices?” she asked. “And you should be proud of yourselves because you are one of the communities who have been hardest hit ever since 2007-2008 when we had the economic downturn. Your city struggled financially and you don’t get the resources that many other agencies do,” Crocker said. “Yet you still rise above, still get the job done, using what resources you do have to the best of your ability,” she said. “So my hat is off to you. You’re a great agency.”
Woonsocket’s department doesn’t always get the credit it deserves, she noted, and police departments often get more headlines about a mistake that is made than they do about all “the good things that we do.”
Such was the case with Galipeau, who has put in work on accreditation not only for his department but also for the state accreditation agency, she noted.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the lieutenant not only for the work he did for you to help you get accredited, but he has been a great resource to me as well,” she said while noting she now sends him out to help other departments with the process and as an agency assessor.
Oates has also supported those efforts, and Crocker praised the department overall. “You are a professional agency and organization, you do a great job and you should be very proud of yourself,” she told the crowd of officers and staff assembled in the department patrol room.
Baldelli-Hunt said she couldn’t com- mend the department for its work any better than McCartney and Crocker, and was touched by Crocker’s “beautiful words” relaying the hard work that went to achieving the certification.
“I think you are in the perfect place right now to help other departments,” Baldelli-Hunt said of local department’s accomplishment.
She also pointed to the difficulty the department faced achieving its goals with limited resources. “And although things have improved over the last several years and you have been able to have more tools to work with, you’re still in a place where you have additional needs,” Baldelli-Hunt said. “And our goal as an administration, working with the chief and the public safety director and the command staff, is to make sure we give you the resources and the tools that you need,” she added.
“But certainly this recognition of accreditation sends a strong message throughout the state that you are able to accomplish what you are accomplishing with the minimal amount of tools you have before you,” Baldelli-Hunt said.
“There are no better words to hear when you are out in meetings, when you are out of the city and meeting with folks at the state level, and you hear compliments about the public safety officials and we do hear that,” she said. “And that is a testament to the hard work that you do each and every day.”
City Councilman Richard Fagnant, also in attendance, told the local police officers “I sleep very well with my family at Coe Street, 65 years in this city, knowing that we have a fine police department.”
Fagnant said he has called the department “a few times on occasions and they were there within minutes. When people say anything badly against our police department I quickly put them in their place and I’m glad to be your cheerleader,” he said.
Fagnant thanked Oates and his command staff “and the rank and file here,” for their work. “I as a councilman will give you every support. I want to mirror what the mayor said. You are our front line – what I like to call our new centurions, where you are protecting the citizens of Woonsocket. And within reason we are going to give you every tool that you need to protect yourself,” Fagnant said.
Oates also thanked Galipeau for his work on the accreditation award and noted that while it many have “lingered” as an ongoing process for a time it moved forward when it needed to get done.
“We all rallied together, but Normand was the leader and Normand, thank you very much for staying with this and dragging us across the finish line one way or the other,” Oates said.
The chief also thanked the rest of the department, his command staff, the members, and the police union for its support, in getting all the new standards in place and in practice every day.
“It couldn’t have gotten done without the work of the rank and file. It is what you folks do everyday out there in the community – following these policies, and following these procedures,” he said. “And by being accredited, it going to be a check for us that we stay focused, that we do best practices. We will do what we need to do when we say we are going to do something, and follow certain procedures,” he said. “It is followed through, it is documented and it is checked. And that brings more credibility to us and that carries through to the community,” Oates said.
“The community – they should be very proud, and I’m sure they are very proud, that we are now accredited. This is just another sign of how much you care about the community and that you want to do things right and get things right,” Oates said.
“There was a lot of hard work that was put into this and the credit goes to the mayor and the council for your great support, because you can’t get it done without the support of the elected leadership in your city.” —Col. Stephen McCartney, Warwick Police Chief