Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement Receives State Accreditation
News Date June 11, 2007
Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson announced last week that the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement (AgLaw) has been awarded accredited status by the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation (CFA) at a commission meeting in Stuart, Florida. CFA is based in Orlando, Florida and reviews all aspects of an agency's policies and procedures, management, operations, and support services to determine compliance with 276 recognized standards of excellence.
CFA Chairman Chuck Rinehart, chief of the Punta Gorda Police Department, formally presented the certificate of accreditation to Bronson and Colonel Darrell Liford of AgLaw on Wednesday, June 6, 2007, after a successful inspection of AgLaw facilities and interviews with personnel that occurred in April of this year.
Undergoing the voluntary state accreditation process provides a law enforcement agency with a "quality assurance review" and encourages intense self-scrutiny, resulting in more efficient and effective daily operations. Becoming accredited by the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation is considered a significant accomplishment, and this status is held in high esteem by the criminal justice community.
Once compliance is achieved, accreditation status is awarded for a period of three years, at which point the agency will have to be re-accredited. This forces every accredited agency to establish and maintain standards that represent current professional law enforcement practices, to strive to increase effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of law enforcement services, to institute practices that reduce liability for the agency and its personnel, and to update systems that make an agency and its personnel accountable to the constituency they serve.
"Our Agricultural Officers have always played a vital role in our efforts to reduce plant and animal disease, protect consumers from fraudulent business practices and food safety violations, and the aggressive investigation of arson crimes occurring on wildlands in Florida. Now, by choosing to participate in the formal and thorough peer review by the commission, AgLaw can document to the citizens of Florida that it adheres to the high standards of law enforcement professionalism and is among the finest in the state," Bronson said.
The Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement was created in 1992. The new entity consolidated all of the department's law enforcement functions, which resulted in a more efficient use of resources and law enforcement personnel. In 2002, AgLaw Officers received full law enforcement authority.
They are responsible for conducting inspections of highway shipments of agricultural, horticultural, aquacultural and livestock commodities, investigations of consumer fraud, and enforcement of criminal and civil violations occurring within state forests or any crimes involving agriculture.
A centerpiece of the AgLaw program are the 23 interdiction stations in North Florida that its officers staff to inspect the more than 10 million commercial vehicles that enter or leave the state each year. In recent years, officers have recovered nearly $25 million in drugs, stolen goods and contraband at those locations. Individual seizures have included a $7 million cocaine shipment, $600,000 in stolen medicines, 60 stolen large-screen televisions and a truckload of stolen computer equipment.
Designed historically to keep plant and animal pest and diseases out of Florida by inspecting the commercial vehicles that enter or leave the state, the stations are playing an increasingly important role in Florida's homeland security efforts, as officers have detained several truckloads of illegal aliens in addition to the seizure of drugs, stolen goods and other contraband at the stations. (Contact: Cheryl DeGroff-Berry, 850/245-1300)