Mount Vernon Police Chief Robert K. Morgan expects his department to gain full accreditation from the Ohio Collaborative by early February.
The Police Department successfully passed review on the first of four parts of the process, receiving provisional certification, which deals with use of force in recruitment and hiring traction. The second and third parts are in final review, with the fourth section getting its first review by the Ohio Collaborative. Once the documents are approved, a reviewer will visit the Police Department to examine everything that is in place.
"The biggest thing that we had to work on was the policies and procedures," Morgan said.
At the start of the process just after Morgan was hired as police chief a year ago, 30 policies and procedures had been updated. Now all 168 have been updated to comply with standards and following best practices. This work brought the Police Department into the Ohio Collaborative, positioning it for accreditation.
"They told us when we started it was going to take us 18 months to two years to get this done, and we've got it done in a year," he said. "So all the credit in the world goes to my staff, my supervisors and my instructors and the people working for me, because I definitely could not have done it by myself."
Accreditation with the Ohio Collaborative has been volunteer, but Morgan said he expects it will become mandatory.
The 12-member Ohio Collaborative established use of force standards for police five years ago. It is rooted in an order from then-Gov. John Kasich designed to improve relations between the police and the communities they serve.
The Police Department has January training scheduled for officers on advanced crisis intervention. The next focus will be on crimes targeting the elderly, such as scams and elder abuse.
Engineering
A half-day was spent working on the digester rehabilitation project at the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The city will prepare a preliminary design for an application for the EPA Water Pollution Control loan fund, which must be completed before Mount Vernon applies for any money in what Mayor Matt Starr said are zero-percent loans. Until the design is completed, the city won’t know what amount to request.
The city ordered a temporary screen replacement for the digester, which will cost $600. But Starr said renting a crane to install the screen will be pricey.
The city started hooking up utility taps for Danbury Senior Living center on Venture Drive, adding eight customers for the city utility.
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