Blount County Sheriff James Lee Berrong is pleased to announce the Commission on the Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) awarded the Sheriff’s Office its seventh accreditation effective April 2, 2022. The announcement was made in Orlando, Florida at CALEA’s spring conference. Numerous law enforcement agencies throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico attended the conference.
This is the Blount County’s Sheriff’s Office sixth reaccreditation since receiving initial accreditation in 2003. The re-accreditation was approved by CALEA following a remote assessment in October 2021 to examine Sheriff’s Office operations for compliance with CALEA criteria. The Sheriff’s Office has received re-accreditation consistently since initial accreditation in 2003.
The Sheriff’s Office will undergo site-based review again in October 2025, however we are required to submit files electronically every year to stay current with accreditation.
The Blount County Sheriff’s Office is one of five Sheriff’s Offices in Tennessee to be accredited through CALEA. This re-accreditation posed more of a challenge due to pandemic-related travel restrictions that the assessment team overcame. Because this assessment was managed remotely, the accreditation team conducted all meetings and interviews by way of video conferencing, along with viewing a virtual tour of the Sheriff’s Office. The assessment team conducted 50 interviews.
In the final report, the assessors highlighted that the “department’s philosophy is heavily based on the principles of community-oriented policing and providing the highest quality of service possible to the Blount County community,” and “department members are vested in their community and the department is always looking for new ways to positively engage its community members.” Other comments included “During the assessment, it was obvious that the community supports and appreciates the outreach efforts from the department.” The assessors also noted the Sheriff’s Office “prides itself on providing the highest quality training possible to its employees,” and “the training received by deputies following the academy and beyond far exceeds the minimum required. The agency believes in the philosophy of better training for their deputies produces better decisions during the performance of their duties.”
“Accreditation assures the citizens of Blount County that we are providing the most professional law enforcement services possible,” Sheriff Berrong said. “We work hard throughout the year to maintain those standards, but we are a better agency because of it. I am proud of our deputies. We are also fortunate to live in a community which the Sheriff’s Office, Alcoa and Maryville Police Departments, as well as Blount County Communications are all accredited.”
CALEA serves as the premier credentialing association for public safety agencies and provides accreditation services for law enforcement organizations, public safety communication centers, public safety training academies, and campus security agencies.
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