By Kenneth Thompson

Staff writer

LaGrange Public Safety Director Lou Dekmar has another title.

He has been named chairman of the Commission On Accreditation For Law Enforcement Agencies after serving two years as vice chairman of the organization.

Dekmar was voted as chairman by CALEA’s 21 commissioners after the previous chairman, Kettering, Ohio, Police Chief Jim O’Dell served his limit of three terms, including an unexpired session.

“I’m honored and humbled to serve this position with this great organization,” Dekmar said. “I’ll continue to attend CALEA’s meetings and will probably shift my time working on broader areas of CALEA as opposed to before.”

Dekmar was nominated five years ago as a CALEA commissioner and is eligible to serve two three-year terms as chairman.

In the role of chairman, Dekmar will have opportunities to observe police departments across the nation, as well as in Canada, Mexico and Barbados.

“My affiliation with CALEA puts me in a position to look at a lot of different agencies and take different concepts of policing strategies and bring some of them for us to implement,” he said.

Founded in 1979, CALEA requires high standards of safety and efficiency in order for a law enforcement agency to be accredited. The LaGrange Police Department has been accredited through CALEA for the last 10 years.

Kenneth Thompson can be reached at kethompson@lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.