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The sheriff’s immediate reaction was to congratulate “all of the men and women” of his office. He also thanked the NJSACOP’s Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission.
BCSO
“Accreditation ensures that we, as an organization, are adhering to the highest standards of professionalism and public service,” Saudino told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
That organization includes command staff, patrol officers, corrections officers, civilian staff and others.
Accreditation isn’t window dressing. It helps identify a facility’s strengths and weaknesses, provides a better system of documentation and daily operations, and, in the process, helps keep morale up.
It also helps keep liability down, which, as Saudino notes, is a boon for taxpayers.
(It’s been years since an escape — the result of a clever ID-switch con that put another woman behind bars — or a lawsuit against any officers at the River Street agency.)
An assessment team spent two days in late October at the sheriff’s office and Bergen County Jail that Saudino’s agency operates. The members reviewed every aspect of the sheriff’s organization, management, operations and administration in depth.
In its report, the NJSACOP cited the office’s “well organized” internal affairs function, as well as the “robust field training officer program” run by the Training Unit.
“It goes to show that the policies and procedures we have implemented here have followed the core functions of the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office,” Saudino said.
The office was accredited in 2010. Accreditation is awarded for three years. An agency must go through the entire process each time and maintain the required standards throughout.
The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office is the largest law enforcement agency in the county, providing a variety of public safety functions — with specialized units that support municipal police, officers who safeguard the courts and corrections officers and command staff who operate the jail, among other responsibilities.
Its Bureau of Criminal Identification collects and analyzes evidence from all types of crime scenes.
The 1,250-bed jail not only secures defendants awaiting trial. It also holds short-timers — those sentenced to 364 days or fewer — in either a minimum, medium or maximum security environment, as well as federal immigration detainees.
ABOVE PHOTOS (all three): Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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