Leesburg police lose accreditation

The department had been accredited since 2006, but the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission on Thursday voted against re-accreditation, according to an LPD news release on Friday. Of Virginia’s roughly 300 police agencies, Leesburg was one of 104 accredited departments.

Accredited departments include the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, which has been accredited since 1999, according to Deputy First Class Sam M. Shenouda, an LCSO spokesman. They are scheduled to be re-accredited in December of 2024.

Accreditation, which costs $100 annually, is done every four years. It is conducted by the Virginia Law Enforcement Standards Commission, which includes many current and former police officers.

“To obtain accreditation, a law enforcement agency must meet all applicable program standards, maintain their accreditation files on an on-going basis, and provide annual verifications of compliance as required by the commission,” Officer Michael Drogin, LPD spokesman, said in an email. “On-site assessments are done every four years by specially trained program assessors to assure consistency and full compliance of all accredited agencies.

To receive accreditation, departments like the LPD must meet commission standards that are modeled after national standards.

“The standards developed by the Commission are only guidelines for what should be done, not how it should be done,” the commission’s program manual said. “Policies on many topics, for instance the use of force, may be very similar among most agencies. On the other hand, policies dealing with disciplinary actions may vary greatly. Policy development that complies with these standards, however, remains dependent on the judgment of the [police chief or sheriff.]”

In the release, Drogin detailed the failures by the 90-officer department:

• Audits were not completed for two financial accounts, but he said they’ve since been completed and the department is now in compliance. “No funds are missing and there is no evidence of wrongdoing,” Drogin said.
• After the department backup evidence/property room custodian retired, the new backup custodian began work before an audit of the room was done, but Drogin said the room is now in compliance.
• Policy language about the frequency of evidence/property room audits was out of compliance, but Drogin said it has been updated.
• Officers were carrying “less lethal” shotguns on patrol for which they hadn’t been requalified. The 12-gauge shotguns are equipped to fire projectiles known as “beanbag” rounds, which can kill if fired improperly, but are designed to cause non-lethal injuries. They’re typically used for crowd control during violent protests. Drogin said the shotguns were never fired by the officers during the accreditation process, but have been removed from service until the officers can re-qualify to use them in January.

The loss of accreditation came on Gregory C. Brown’s last day as police chief, but Drogin said it was unrelated to Brown’s retirement. The LPD expects to name a new chief by the summer, he said, adding that Brown, hired in 2016, was “instrumental” in the department’s re-accreditation in 2018.

Interim Police Chief Vanessa L. Grigsby said in the release that the department’s daily operations wouldn’t suffer due to losing accreditation.

“In the continued spirit of community trust through transparency, I feel it important to notify the public of the commission’s decision,” she said. “I will personally ensure that the Leesburg Police Department remains in full compliance with all VLEPSC accreditation standards going forward.”