Rapid City SD – Chief Don Hedrick told the Rapid City City Council at a special meeting Monday — during his 2027 Police Department budget presentation — that the Rapid City Police Department is the only accredited law enforcement agency in South Dakota. The point came up as part of his prepared remarks generally, not tied to any specific budget request.

The Accreditation

“I wanted to mention our accreditation,” Hedrick told the council. “We just kind of went through an accreditation process, and I have to mention — you know, we are still the only accredited law enforcement agency in the state of South Dakota. It’s a big deal. It’s not always comfortable to have a third party come through and go through all your policies, practices, procedures, but it’s important. It’s a big deal. It keeps us on the cutting edge, it keeps us on our toes, keeps us accountable, and it keeps us professional. It’s a lot of extra work, but to us it’s worth it. We’ve been accredited for over 30 years and we’re proud of that.”

It’s a true and long-standing claim. RCPD has been continuously accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) since 1990 — more than three decades running — and remains the only CALEA-accredited agency in the state.

Fewer than 10% of law enforcement agencies nationwide meet CALEA’s standards, so this isn’t an inflated talking point; it’s a genuinely rare distinction for a department this size. Accreditation requires compliance with roughly 484 standards spanning policy and procedure, administration, operations, and support services, and RCPD holds CALEA’s “Flagship Agency” status, awarded for sustained success through multiple reaccreditation cycles.

What’s less well known is that the department isn’t hiding this — it’s just aiming it at a different audience. The accreditation is front and center on RCPD’s recruiting page and its “About the Department” page, and has shown up in city press releases going back to at least 2016. It’s used far more as a recruiting tool than a public-facing one, which may be why it registered as a small surprise landing in a budget setting instead of a hiring pitch.

What this means for Rapid City

The clearest benefit is financial: accredited agencies are generally viewed as lower-risk by insurers, which can translate into real reductions in liability insurance costs.

Accreditation also standardizes policy and training citywide, so the department isn’t reinventing procedure every time leadership changes, and it functions as a genuine asset in recruiting officers from outside the region.

Grant Funding

Grant funding is a more complicated story than it might sound. Accreditation isn’t a direct funding unlock — there’s no simple “accredited departments get more federal money” pipeline. But it functions as a credibility signal in competitive grant applications, and in at least one case, a 2020 federal executive order on policing standards tied grant eligibility directly to CALEA-style certification. Separately, the DOJ’s COPS Office runs grant programs specifically to help departments cover the cost of becoming accredited in the first place — meaning federal money more often flows toward achieving accreditation than because an agency already has it.

The Chief leading the RCPD

Hedrick joined RCPD in 2002 and rose through the department over nearly two decades before being named Chief of Police in August 2020, following a period as Assistant Chief.

He’s a graduate of Dakota Wesleyan University in criminal justice and holds a Master of Science in Public Administration from the University of South Dakota (2006–2008). In 2014 he completed the FBI National Academy program at Quantico. Since 2020, he’s been a Bloomberg Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, pursuing a Doctor of Public Health with a concentration in health equity and violence.

That research background tracks with real, documented work he’s overseen as chief: a push toward trauma-informed policing, the department’s Peer Support and Crisis Intervention Teams, and his 2025 appointment to the federal Not Invisible Act Commission on missing and murdered Indigenous people.

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Sourcing note: Hedrick’s quote is transcribed directly from the July 27, 2026 special Rapid City City Council meeting (agenda item 2, approx. timestamp 1:21:33). Accreditation history and standards are sourced to CALEA’s public accreditation program materials. Population and grant-funding context sourced to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, City of Rapid City Long Range Planning Division reporting, and U.S. Department of Justice COPS Office program materials.