State-Based Law Enforcement Accreditation Outcomes: A Multiple Case Study in Texas

The 21st century has brought new challenges to the nation’s law enforcement organizations, with agencies having to achieve a higher service standard to meet society’s demand for transparency, responsiveness, and justice. Prompted by presidential task force recommendations in 2015 and 2020, law enforcement agencies have sought methods to raise their organizational standards to build trust and legitimacy of policing in their communities. Based on federal guidelines, the accreditation of law enforcement agencies and implementation of the best practices in law enforcement throughout the nation have taken root in American policing. On a national level, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) has garnered significant studies in the academic community. However, there have been few studies on state-based accrediting commissions despite their prevalence in two-thirds of the states. Due to the increasing widespread use of state-based accrediting organizations and the apparent lack of studies on the efficacy of state-based accreditation, this study seeks to determine the outcomes of state-based accreditation by surveying Texas law enforcement agencies accredited through the Texas Police Chiefs Association (TPCA). This quantitative study is designed to examine accreditation results to identify the potential outcomes of the state-based accreditation process. The study is a multiple case study of three accredited midsize Texas law enforcement agencies examining the pre- and post-effects of TPCA accreditation on the agency in policy development, lawsuits, employee training, sustained citizen complaints against department members, and employees injured in the line of duty. Based on a comprehensive survey instrument, correlates of agency image and personal self-concept were assessed. Data was coded and processed using IBM SPSS software to determine the data's descriptive statistics, p-value, and effect size. The results were analyzed through the lens of institutional theory for theoretical context.