The head of the city's Citizen Police Review Board yesterday called on the Pittsburgh Police Bureau to complete its accreditation process with a statewide organization, a dozen years after former Mayor Tom Murphy and City Council approved a law mandating such a step.

"They've never been accredited," Elizabeth Pittinger, the review board's executive director, said following a City Council hearing. "The city code says you have to be."

A group of local activists petitioned for the hearing, hoping to bring new attention to the 1997 consent decree that allowed the federal government to oversee Pittsburgh police for five years.

The decree has since ended, but Ms. Pittinger and others want to make sure its core elements -- including better procedures to hold officers accountable and stronger methods for tracking the use of force, searches and traffic stops -- are still being followed.

Her preferred approach is for the police bureau to complete its application process with the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Program, an affiliate of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.

"Accreditation just means you are meeting minimum standards of professional conduct and best practices of law enforcement," Ms. Pittinger said.

The state accreditation program was launched in 2001. A national program has existed since 1979.

About 60 local police departments have become accredited at the state level, including two in Allegheny County and the Pennsylvania State Police.

The city law mandating accreditation was enacted in 1996. About the same time, a class-action lawsuit alleging pervasive police brutality pushed the city to sign a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department. Its goal was weeding out bad officers and improving discipline and professionalism in the city police force.

The consent decree immediately became the city's main focus, said former police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr., who headed the bureau at the time. When it was lifted, the bureau applied to become part of the new state accreditation program.

But that process has stalled, and Ms. Pittinger hopes to get it moving again. Chief Nate Harper, the city's current top police official, couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

"Every department should be striving for accreditation," Chief McNeilly, who now runs the Elizabeth Township police department, said in an interview. But he said it wasn't a "cure-all," noting that some police departments, including Cincinnati's, found themselves in legal trouble with the federal government despite meeting accreditation standards for the national accreditation program.

Still, Ms. Pittinger, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups want to see the city comply with the state standards to ensure outside oversight of Pittsburgh police.

Council members said they would need more information on the issue before they decide what to do.