Accreditation

Definition

To be an accredited agency means a dedication to providing services to the community it serves, to promote cooperation among all components in the criminal justice system, to ensure an appropriate level of training for all personnel; promotion of public confidence in law enforcement and to support professionalism of law enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Sheriff Mark Armentrout and the members of the Radford City Sheriff’s Office are committed to the mission of VLEPSC and the accreditation program. Accreditation increases cooperation and coordination with other law enforcement agencies and other branches of the criminal justice system. The accreditation process requires an in-depth review of every aspect of the agency’s organization, management, operations, and administration.

An accredited agency:

• Provides objective measures to justify decisions related to budget requests and personnel policies
• Provides standard norms against which agency performance can be measured and monitored over time
• Provides the agency with a continuous flow of Commission distributed information about exemplary policies, procedures, and projects
• Serves as a yardstick to measure the effectiveness of the agency’s programs and services. The services provided are defined, and uniformity of service is assured
• Streamlines operations, providing more consistency and more effective deployment of agency manpower

Requirements

Accreditation requires that Radford City Sheriff’s Office policies and procedures are in written form, available to all agency personnel at all times and assures employees that every aspect of the RSO’s personnel system is in accord with VLEPSC standards. The RSO will operate within specific guidelines and will be accountable and in compliance with standards set forth by the VLEPSC Commission in order to retain accreditation status.

Benefits

Accreditation enhances the ability of the Radford City Sheriff’s Office to be effective and efficient in the delivery of services and generates a partnership with the citizens of the City of Radford. This relationship allows for a better understanding of the challenges that confronts the RSO and in return the RSO receives a clear direction from the community about its expectations.

The Radford City Sheriff’s Office recognizes the honor of being an accredited agency and understands that accreditation is a coveted award that symbolizes professionalism, excellence and competence. Sheriff Mark Armentrout and his staff takes pride in knowing that by being an accredited agency we represent the very best in law enforcement.

First Accreditation

The Radford City Sheriff’s Office was first accredited on August 10, 2006 under the leadership of Sheriff Armentrout. Accreditation was one of his original campaign promises because he felt strongly that it would help the office to become a more professional organization.

We had to comply with 190 standards to pass muster. This includes 78 standards in the Administration section covering 25 topic areas; 69 standards in the Operations section covering 14 topic areas; 35 standards in the Personnel section covering 11 topic areas; and 8 standards in the Training section covering 4 topic areas.

Accreditation runs on a 4 year cycle and we are proud to say we completed three reaccreditations and our fourth reaccreditation will take place in the fall of 2022. It is a monumental effort and we are very proud of how our team has pulled together to meet the challenge.