LANSING - Governor Rick Snyder recently announced that the state of Michigan renewed it's accreditation by the Emergency Management Accreditation Program, otherwise known as EMAP, which acknowledges the ability of state government to prepare and respond to all types of emergencies and disasters.

Specialist Lieutenant Kevin Mark from the Michigan State Police says the State of Michigan was first given the accreditation back in 2011.

"This achievement displays Michigan's dedication to protecting the health and safety of Michiganders during the time of a disaster," Lieutenant Mark says.

He also says the program allows Michigan to be evaluated with 16 different areas and under 64 different national processes where an independent group of EMAP participants evaluate Michigan's emergency response program to receive the accreditation.

The independent panel from EMAP would evaluate how the agency would recover from the event, how they would respond to the event and how resources would be managed.

The accreditation is not limited to a natural disaster, Lieutenant Mark says emergency management or homeland security issues were also evaluated for accreditation.

"All disasters start at the local level and end at the local level and we might respond to it differently but there's still kind of the framework that has us respond to disasters either if they're man-made or natural disasters."

After 5 years, the states that have previously received the accreditation must be re-evaluated. Mark says they worked with the EMAP panel for about 6 months, since they are evaluated under various processes.

According to Mark, the Michigan State Police is responsible for all emergency management and homeland security throughout the state. MSP represents the accreditation for the state but will work with local programs and municipalities to prepare for an emergency management or homeland security event.

In light of the recent attacks in Paris, Mark says it the program will keep everyone on track when dealing with a disaster.

"We're always ready to prepare for either a man-made or natural disaster. This just kind of puts everybody back in focus when something tragic like that happens."