Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette The Houghton Police Department is looking to become the second department in the Upper Peninsula accredited through the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. Residents will be able to call from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. to give their thoughts on the department.

HOUGHTON — The Houghton Police Department is looking to become the second accredited department in the Upper Peninsula.

A team from the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police will visit the department this week as part of the accreditation process. That will also include a two-hour period Thursday where residents can call in and comment on the department.

Chief John Donnelly said the MACP has been encouraging departments to pursue accreditation. The Marquette Police Department became accredited in 2019.

“There’s a lot of turmoil, and there’s a lot of people that don’t have the confidence in law enforcement that they once did,” he said. “And this is a way to say, okay, everything we’re doing meets all the standards to say that we’re doing what we should be as a police department.”

More than 100 standards that are evaluated overall. The department has to demonstrate the steps it takes to meet that standard: for instance, the evaluation of their response to an accident call will also make note of whether officers remember to buckle their seat belts.

As part of an earlier mock exercise, assessors already identified some policies and procedures in the department that needed to be strengthened, Donnelly said.

“What that does is try to add a level of professionalism, and it also tries to align your policies and procedures into what you’re actually doing,” he said. “Our policies were outdated and needed to be updated. We were able to get a set of policies and procedures that we had to mold to what we do here.”

Assessors will be on-site Wednesday and Thursday this week. Residents will also be able to call in with their experiences with the department from 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday. The number is 906-481-4630.

If the department meets the standards, it will hopefully receive accreditation at MACP’s fall conference, Donnelly said.

Accreditation might also help the department in applying for future grants, and also serves as a marker of quality.

“At one time, it would be very difficult and hard to even share policies and procedures with people,” Donnelly said. “Now, it makes that a lot more open. We’ve tried to be very transparent and try to say, ‘Hey, this is us. Take a look at us. If we’re not doing it right, we’ll have to make some changes where we are doing it right.'”

Officer Kirk Mills, who has served as the department’s accreditation manager, and office manager Polly Salmi have put a tremendous amount of time into the process, including rewriting policies where needed to meet the accreditation standards, Donnelly said.

“They really put their best foot forward and worked very hard at it, and the department as a whole,” he said. “It’s change, and change isn’t easy. So I’m happy that the department is willing to go for the change.”