Photo/Michele Hester Northeastern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Lee Darragh presents Dawson County Sheriff Billy Carlisle with a lapel pin during Thursday's commission meeting. The honor is awarded to agencies that receive state certification.

All too often, law enforcement is put under the microscope, Dawson County Sheriff Billy Carlisle says.

"When I watch the news all the time, they're always cutting down law enforcement and talking about how bad a job we're doing," he said.

Rarely, he said, is an agency or its officers credited for successes.

Carlisle hopes to break the negative law enforcement stereotype after a presentation Thursday by Gainesville Police Chief Frank Hooper to the Dawson County Sheriff's Office that endorses the agency as a Georgia State Certified Law Enforcement Operation.

"(State certification) is entirely volunteer," Hooper said. "Sheriff Carlisle and the Dawson County Sheriff's Office participated in this on a volunteer basis, and I think that's a great step for a law enforcement agency."

"On a personal level, I've worked with Sheriff Carlisle on a couple of different boards," Hooper said. "He has a very progressive and responsive law enforcement agency, and I think he is a great tribute to the people of Dawson County to have this agency achieve (state certification). This is a great accomplishment."

The Dawson County Sheriff's Office is only the tenth law enforcement agency in the state to receive Georgia state certification, an outline of how top-quality law enforcement agencies operate, according to the Georgia Certification Standards.

"It's been one of my dreams and one of the department's dreams to get state certification since 1999," said Maj. Kevin Tanner. "Out of 159 counties, for us to be the tenth is quite an honor for us."

The Georgia Certification Standards committee researched and determined the best practices in law enforcement, covering everything from police chases, to hiring practices, promotion practices, training and use of force, to name a few of the 118 blueprint standards.

"You have to have policies in place that meet the certification standards. More importantly, most people have policies in place, but they don't actually follow the policies," Tanner said. "State certification forces you to not only have a policy on these issues, but it also forces you to follow your policies and document proof that you are following those policies."

Carlisle and Tanner have worked since 1999 to bring the department to standards comparable to the best law enforcement agencies in the state. With the hiring of Accreditation Manager Bob Ivey a year and a half ago, the process of obtaining state certification was within reach.

"The certification manager needs special recognition. He's who keeps it on tract," Hooper said.

Other agencies in the state have also asked Ivey to show them how he has set up the files so they too can apply for state certification.

"Cherokee County has also contacted us about being on an assessment board for them," Tanner said. "So Dawson County's Sheriff Office is getting recognized by other agencies in this area and also across the state as an example of how to do business. We're very proud of that, because that is what our goal has been over the last 10 years."

For Carlisle, the state certification gives him the message that his office is "doing everything we're supposed to be doing," he said.

"But, I could not have obtained this goal without the employees of the sheriff's office," he added.

"We want this to be the best sheriff's office in the state of Georgia, and they (employees) get up every morning saying they want to do the best job they can for the citizens of Dawson County," he said.

Carlisle said obtaining national certification is his next goal.

E-mail Michele Hester at michele@dawsonnews.com.

Originally published Wednesday, March 26, 2008