Happy Thanksgiving From the Callaway County Sheriff's Office

With Thanksgiving approaching. I would like to make people aware of the foremost thing the Callaway County Sheriff's Office has to give thanks for.

Callaway County is such a great place to live and work. We have the most supportive citizens of any county. Without the support of the citizens we would not be able to do our jobs. A recent showing of this support was when two members of our department were shot in the line of duty. The outpouring of support towards not only the two members, but as the agency as a whole, was unbelievable and I want to say thank you to everyone.

Corporal Bax is back to work on a light duty status. He gets to hang out at the office all day and deal with phone calls, walk in complaints in the lobby, assisting investigators by making phone calls, etc. In between things, he is doing physical therapy work on his arm. Although he is not pleased with being stuck in the office, he says it is better than sitting at home.

Deputy Pottorff is at home recovering. At this point, we do not know when he will be released for light duty status. He is improving a little more each day and if he had his way, he would be back at work because being stuck at home and missing out on "the action" is causing him to go stir crazy.

Both are expected to make a near 100% recovery and both are looking forward to returning to full duty, and we are excited for their return.

I would like to brag a little now about the Sheriff's Office as a whole. Just under 4 years ago, the Sheriff's Office started a voluntary process to become an internationally accredited law enforcement agency. The Sheriff's Office has been working with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. (CALEA).

The CALEA Accreditation programs provide public safety agencies with an opportunity to voluntarily meet an established set of professional standards, which require:

• Comprehensive and uniform written directives that clearly define authority, performance, and responsibilities.
• Reports and analyses to make fact-based and informed management decisions.
• Preparedness to address natural or man-made critical incidents.
  Community relationship-building and maintenance.
• Independent review by subject matter experts.
• Continuous pursuit of excellence through annual reviews and other assessment measures.

This started with ensuring our policies conformed to the standards of CALEA. Then there was on-line reviewing of our policies. Eventually, a member of CALEA came here and spent almost a week going over policies, seeing how we do things. Interviewing business leaders, church leaders, citizens, etc... seeking input from their view of the Sheriff's Office. On November 16th, we then had an in-person hearing before the CALEA Board of Commissioners. During these hearings, there were 139 agencies from all across the United States, to include Hawaii, plus agencies from Canada and Mexico who were seeking either initial accreditation or re-accreditation. After that hearing, it was unanimously voted on to recognized the Callaway County Sheriff's Office as a CALEA agency. This makes the Callaway County Sheriff's Office only the 4th sheriff's office and 50th law enforcement agency in Missouri to be accredited. I am so proud of all of the members of our agency as this has been a long and taxing process for them to endure.

We here at your Sheriff's Office want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and a great New Year.

Darryl Maylee, Sheriff

Callaway County Sheriff's Office