On February 12, 2025, the Mansfield Police Department officially received and earned Full Accreditation Status from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission (MPAC). The process is voluntary, and police departments must mirror best practices regionally and nationally.
The receive accreditation the Department MUST meet all applicable mandatory standards, as well as, 55 percent of option standards.
Accreditation is the second tier or level of MPAC’s program. It encompasses all 176 of the Certification standards along with an additional 131 mandatory and a percentage of optional accreditation standards. Accreditation is best accomplished upon completing an agency’s Certification to meet all readiness and program-related requirements. Additional requirements, as a result of the Commonwealth’s Police Reform Act of 2020 and the POST Commission, were recently added as part of MPAC’s sixth edition of standards. The Mansfield Police Department previously achieved Certification Status on February 7, 2024.
The accreditation process is aimed at providing accountability among agency personnel and ensuring policies are applied evenhandedly; providing a statewide norm against which agencies can judge their performance; providing a basis to correct deficiencies before they become public problems; providing independent evaluation of agency operations; enhancing the reputation of an agency, increasing public confidence; and minimizing insurance costs and agency liability.
