VALDOSTA — The Valdosta Police Department was awarded advanced accreditation this summer from the nation’s police accrediting agency.

The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies has granted Valdosta’s police accreditation every three years continuously since 1999, CALEA’s website shows.

The Valdosta Police Department had received CALEA’s excellence award during several past reaccreditations, but not this time. It wasn’t the department’s fault, though, said Vince Dauro, CALEA’s regional program manager for the Southeast.

“CALEA recently updated things with much stronger requirements, making it extremely hard to get the excellence award,” he said.

“They haven’t done anything wrong; they’re still the best of the best,” Dauro said.

While he couldn’t give any specifics about why the Valdosta department didn’t get the excellence award, Dauro did say the new rules leave little room for any kind of error.

“For instance, each department has to send us an annual report by a deadline,” he said. “If the report is 31 days late, they’re ineligible for excellence.”

Advanced level is CALEA’s highest level of accreditation, he said.

In a statement, Police Chief Leslie Manahan said, “Our agency went in front of the CALEA Accreditation Commission, in July, at which time the Commission voted unanimously to accredit our department for the eighth consecutive time since 1999. Our agency proudly continues to be CALEA accredited, along with state certification and an ANSI National Accreditation for our crime laboratory.”

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.