SIU-Carbondale's Department of Public Safety has earned its first accreditation from the Illinois Law Enforcement Accreditation Program.
Benjamin Newman, the university's public safety director, was notified of the three-year, Tier II accreditation earlier this week. This highest accreditation level requires compliance with 180 law enforcement standards and is not based on department size but how comprehensive a department is in complying with standards.
SIU-Carbondale is now one of 25 police agencies in the state to earn the accreditation and just the fourth public or private university in the state to do so.
SIU police has 37 sworn police officers, 16 non-sworn full-time personnel and 12 student workers.
The Carbondale Police Department is also an accredited Tier II agency.