A commitment to community policing must guide every decision and every action of the department. There is no reason why accreditation's strategic planning process cannot be used to facilitate community policing and meaningful change in a law enforcement agency. The discussion above clearly underscores this conclusion.
Accreditation requires law enforcement agencies to document their policies.
Community policing requires agencies to engage the community in a process of evaluating what ought to be documented. Both ask participants to take a critical look at the status quo.