WASHINGTON, D.C. – A representative for the agency reviewing George Washington University‘s campus police says that the three discrimination complaints brought forward against in the department past six months could affect its accreditation this winter.
Accreditation officials plan to visit campus by early December and will spend at least one month assessing the GWU police department’s procedures, training programs and public interactions, reports the GW Hatchet. If the officials find larger problems in addition to the three complaints, GWU’s police department could lose its accreditation.
If during the accreditation process GWU’s police department did not comply with its own policies, then the accreditation organization would consider legal action, says W. Craig Hartley Jr., the executive director of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).
Hartley also sayas that he could not comment on GWU specifically. He also states that in general, accreditors will look for trends in any current lawsuit.
Since 2010 when CALEA last accredited GWU PD, five officers have filed gender, race or age discrimination complaints against the agency.
