Cookeville Police Department planning to have a permanent place for public feedback on department policies and operations.
Sergeant Logan Shrum said this comes as part of new accreditation requirements for community review by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), the department’s accreditation agency. He said the comments made by the public will go directly to that commission and then to the department.
“This specifically allows us to take a look internally, see what we’re doing, what’s working for the public, compare that to what CALEA requires of us, which typically we exceed anyway,” Shrum said. “But the way this is routed that information goes to the chief, it goes straight to the top. So we’re able to take a look internally and address it immediately.”
Shrum said departments have to publish a public comment portal for a minimum of 60 days each year. He said all comments are submitted anonymously if so desired.
Shrum said the portal is specifically for feedback on department policies and personnel. He said CALEA is not an investigative body and comments should not be submitted for such purposes.
“That’s talking about stuff like why is there not a stop sign at this crossroad or stuff like that,” Shrum said. “We have a citizen survey on the website as well where they can submit for things like that, but this is catered specifically to how we interact with the community, our policies and procedures.”
Shrum said the department has posted the comment portal on social media, and you can also find it on their website.
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