Hopkinton Police Chief Joseph Bennett announced that a team of assessors from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission is scheduled to visit Dec. 2-3 to begin examining various aspects of the Hopkinton Police Department’s policies and procedures, operations and facilities.

Verification by the assessment team that the department meets the commission’s standards is part of a voluntary process to gain state accreditation — a self-initiated process by which police departments strive to meet and maintain standards that have been established for the profession by the profession.

The Massachusetts Police Accreditation Program consists of 257 mandatory standards as well as 125 optional standards. In order to achieve accreditation status, the department must meet all applicable mandatory standards as well as 55 percent of the optional standards.

According to Bennett, achieving accreditation is a highly prized recognition of law enforcement. He encourages anyone interested in learning more about the program to call him or the department’s accreditation manager, Lt. John Porter.