By Luke Parker
Capital Gazette
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — An international accreditation program measuring a police agency’s commitment to professional standards reinstated the Annapolis Police Department after a nearly yearlong suspension.
“Accreditation reinstatement shows that our entire team is dedicated and professional,” Police Chief Ed Jackson said in a statement. “It assures the public that our department follows best practices and operates at the highest level. This recognition shows our commitment to serving the community with integrity, transparency, and accountability.”
The police department lost its standing with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies last spring, a setback criticized more by the officers’ union than city officials. As relations between Jackson and the union grew increasingly tense, Mayor Gavin Buckley said the chief had his “full support.”
To be awarded a CALEA certification, known as “the gold standard in public safety,” a law enforcement agency must show regular compliance with its standards and procedures. This includes having up-to-date policies on items such as the use of force and evidence management, while also requiring agencies to build and maintain community relationships.
Participation in CALEA is voluntary but requires annual status reports and an on-site evaluation every four years.
Annapolis Police lost their accreditation after missing a deadline for filings, according to a news release. Last year, Jackson pointed to an uptick in gun violence as the root cause of the delay, saying he redirected the department’s focus from its administrative functions, like CALEA filings, to the streets.
“I’ll never apologize for doing what my oath calls me to do,” Jackson said in May, telling The Capital Gazette he would make the same decisions again.
But the failure to retain CALEA accreditation became a point of contention last summer as the city officers’ union called for Jackson to resign.
The feud between the command staff and the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400 entered the public sphere after the chief suspended two officers in July.
Union leaders described the officers as whistleblowers who reported “waste and mismanagement” by Jackson to the mayor and other high-ranking city officials. Jackson, meanwhile, said he had “lost faith in their ability to take direction” and cited a “rogue investigation” into Deputy Chief Maj. Stan Brandford to support his decision.
Brandford had been working remotely while tending to his sick daughter, the chief said, and his movements were tracked by an unnamed officer using the major’s police vehicle.
The animosity escalated over a couple of weeks, as Jackson charged that “a lot” of the resistance against him was racist, and the union issued a vote of no confidence against him and his administration. Of those who participated, 54 members supported the no-confidence vote while 30 supported Jackson.
Union leaders said “race has nothing to do” with their frustrations with Jackson’s team and in a statement after the vote, they cited the loss of CALEA accreditation before the suspensions as having “diminished our members’ confidence in their command.”
Jonathan Williams, a spokesperson for the Local 400, said Friday that even with the accreditation reinstated he doesn’t “know if things have improved, necessarily” between the command staff and the rank-and-file.
“What we’re hearing from our officers was that this loss was due to mismanagement,” Williams said in an interview. “It’s proper that this was addressed and restored, but it never should have been lost in the first place.”
With the Annapolis Police Department’s reinstatement March 22 , CALEA has accredited 33 law enforcement agencies in Maryland, including the Anne Arundel County Police Department , Maryland State Police and the Maryland Transportation Authority Police.
Of the 33, a dozen represent municipalities. Annapolis Police is the second largest police force among them.
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