Accreditation/Professional Standards

The Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association introduced the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Program to the Commonwealth in July 2001.  Since then, 375 agencies have enrolled and 184 agencies currently have maintained accredited status.

Accreditation is a progressive and time-proven way of helping institutions evaluate and improve their overall performance. The cornerstone of this strategy lies in the promulgation of standards containing a clear statement of professional objectives.

The benefits of accreditation include:

• Establishes a credible framework for evaluating agency practices and procedures.
• Reduces agency risk and exposure to lawsuits.
• Decreases some liability insurance expenditures.
• Improves law enforcement – community relations.
• Increases employee input, interaction, and confidence in the agency.
• Enlarges the outlook and viewpoints of managers, officers, and employees.
• Identifies and highlights the capabilities and competence of the agency.
• Furnishes a solid foundation for the agency to build upon for further progress.
• Provides reliable methods to improve essential management procedures.
• Extends agency accountability to the public and elected officials.
• Enhances planning and innovative activities by all agency personnel.
• Develops improved methods for providing services to the community.                               
• Encourages problem-solving activities within the agency.

The Tredyffrin Township Police Department was accredited by the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission (PLEAC) in 2023. That status is valid for a three-year period. There are three phases of Accreditation: Application/Enrollment, Self-Assessment and Formal Assessment. The self-assessment is a lengthy process in which our Accreditation Team compiles “proofs”/examples of how the current policies comply with the 100+ PLEAC standards. Each standard requires two proofs for every year of that period. The Formal Assessment consists of a 2-day on-site visit by a PLEAC assessment team who verify the proofs of the last three years have aligned with the standards. Tredyffrin Township Police Department is in the final year of the first period, well on our way to achieving re-accreditation status in 2026.