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CALEA Accreditation

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CALEA logoThe Department of Public Safety received its initial accreditation in 1998, and is the largest law enforcement agency in the state to receive this prestigious recognition. Since then, the Department of Public Safety has continually maintained its accredited status, and in November 2013 was awarded Accreditation with Excellence along with the Meritorious Award through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), Inc. 

The accreditation process benefits our officers, as well as civilian personnel by strengthening training, enhancing officer safety, decreasing agency liability, and ensuring uniformity in our hiring practices. The distinction as an internationally accredited agency strengthens the confidence of stakeholders and the communities we serve in our ability to professionally deliver services. 

CALEA was created in 1979 to develop a set of law enforcement standards and to establish and administer an accreditation process through which law enforcement agencies could demonstrate voluntarily that they meet professionally recognized criteria for excellence in management and service delivery. 

Learn more about: the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc.

Public Comment Period is Now Open

The South Carolina Department of Public Safety seeks to meet and maintain the standards outlined by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). To help meet and exceed those standards, SCDPS is offering the public an opportunity to provide input about our agency.

From now until July 26, 2024, SCDPS invites the public to submit feedback about our agency, or any of its law enforcement divisions (South Carolina Highway Patrol, South Carolina State Transport Police, and South Carolina Bureau of Protective Services) at the CALEA Public Portal here: http://cimrs2.calea.org/307.

Public comments may include concerns, commendations, or praise. All comments should be submitted at the CALEA portal link. Please note that any public feedback found on SCDPS social media platforms or sent to any SCDPS inbox will not be submitted to the CALEA portal.

The purpose of the public comment period is to allow SCDPS to receive feedback regarding our compliance with CALEA standards and continuously strengthen our agency’s relations with the community at large. The overall intent of the accreditation process is to provide our agency with information to support continuous improvement and foster our pursuit of professional excellence.

IMPORTANT: CALEA is not an investigatory body; subsequently, the public portal should not be used to submit information for those purposes. Additionally, there will be no response other than an acknowledgment of submissions. However, the information will be considered in context to its relevancy to compliance with the standards and tenets of CALEA Accreditation. Standard titles may be viewed on the CALEA website: https://www.calea.org/node/11406.