IACP Law Enforcement Policy Center
For more than 30 years, the IACP Law Enforcement Policy Center has been identifying leading practices and providing sound guidance to the law enforcement profession to assist in developing policies for individual departments.
Policy Center Resources
The Policy Center offers four types of resources:
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Model Policy: Provides officers with concrete guidance and directives by describing, the manner in which actions, tasks, and operations are to be performed.
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Considerations: Intended to present items for agencies to take into account when developing their own policies on a topic. This format recognizes that expectations and capabilities vary by agency, and it aims to present recommendations to the law enforcement field without dictating exact approaches.
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Concepts and Issues: Designed to provide background information on the topic to support the Model Policy or Considerations document.
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Need to Know...: Synthesizes the key points of the topic into a brief, one-page overview.
Click here to visit the full list of Policy Center topics.
Featured Policy Center Resources
Welfare Checks
Welfare checks are requests for the police to check on an individual due to concern for their safety or well-being. Reasons for such requests vary...
Electronic Control Weapons
Law enforcement officers should use only the force that is objectively reasonable to effectively bring an incident under control, while protecting the safety of the...
Search Warrants
The search warrant is one of the more powerful and valuable tools in the law enforcement arsenal. While the process of applying for and obtaining...
Crime Scene Response
Protection of the crime scene, appropriate documentation, and preservation of evidence are crucial steps in criminal investigations and often provide the basis for effective identification...
Firearm Recovery
With violence involving firearms dominating the news headlines, it is crucial that all law enforcement agencies have timely and sustainable protocols for the recovery and forensic...
Alternatives to Arrest
Programs offering alternatives to arrest have the potential to positively alter the outcomes for individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system. By...
Facial Recognition
Facial recognition technology can be helpful in identifying possible suspects or persons of interest by performing a comparative analysis of facial attributes observed in digital...
Discretionary Response to Calls for Service
Responding to calls for service efficiently is one of a police officer's primary duties, but public safety remains a priority. Inappropriate responses to calls for...
Standards of Conduct
Law enforcement officers must accept and abide by a high ethical and moral standard that is consistent with the rule of law they are sworn...
Employee Mental Health and Wellness
Personnel are the most valuable assets in a law enforcement agency. The documents provided are intended to assist agency personnel in developing policies, procedures, and guidelines...
Recruiting & Hiring
Hiring decisions are among the most impactful decisions a police agency can make. Agencies that want to build positive relationships with their communities, improve their public...
All Policy Center Resources
Line-of-Duty Death
Law enforcement agencies are better able to respond to line-of-duty deaths in a prompt, organized manner and remain sensitive to the profound human emotions survivors...
Line-of-Duty Serious Injury
The impact of an officer’s line-of-duty injury may continue long beyond the initial event and hospitalization. Systematic policies and procedures can help law enforcement agencies...
Major Crime Scenes
This topic has been combined with the Crime Scene Response policy.
Please contact the Policy Center with any questions.
Media Relations
Effective media policies and procedures help build positive community relationships. When developing or maintaining a media relations function, agencies should foster working relationships with the...
Mental Illness*
Responding to situations involving individuals reasonably believed to be persons in crisis (PIC) necessitates an officer to make difficult judgments about the mental state and...
Micro-Cassette Recorders
A police officer may surreptitiously record conversations when such use is appropriate to the proper performance of his/her official duties, where the recordings are consistent...
Missing Children
Law enforcement agencies should expeditiously respond to and thoroughly investigate all reports of missing children without regard to jurisdiction, coordinate a response with the appropriate jurisdiction...
Missing Persons
Some missing person reports involve individuals who have voluntarily left home for personal reasons, while other reports are often unfounded or quickly resolved. However, there...
Mobile Communication Devices
Law enforcement agency often use mobile communication devices (MCDs) in the course of police operations to enhance departmental communication. MCDs may be used by officers...
Mobile Video Recording Equipment
The use of an mobile video recording (MVR) system provides persuasive documentary evidence and helps defend against civil litigation and allegations of officer misconduct. Officers...
Motor Vehicle Impoundment
Officers are routinely faced with the question of whether to impound or tow motor vehicles for purposes of safekeeping property, securing evidence, protecting the public...
Motor Vehicle Inventories
A motor vehicle inventory is an administrative measure designed to protect motor vehicles and their contents while in police custody; to protect the agency against...
Motor Vehicle Searches
Law enforcement officers should conduct motor vehicle searches that are both legal and thorough. Such searches should be conducted in strict observance of the constitutional rights of...
Motor Vehicle Stops
Motor vehicle stops should be performed professionally and courteously. Law enforcement agencies should promote the education of the public about proper driving procedures, while recognizing and taking...
Multi-Agency Investigation Teams
Law enforcement agencies should recognize that the pooling and coordination of resources among regional law enforcement and criminal justice agencies is often the most effective and...
Mutual Aid
These documents discuss an interagency assistance policy intended to define the capabilities and obligations of participating departments to respond to emergency situations outside their own jurisdiction. Agencies...
Naloxone
Naloxone - commonly known by the brand name, Narcan - can be used to treat a narcotics overdose in an emergency. These documents explore the primary issues surrounding...
Off-Duty Arrests
Out-of-uniform, off-duty officers may confront criminal activity to which they should take, or must decide whether to take, enforcement action. When engaged in off-duty enforcement...
Officer-Involved Shootings and Other Serious Incidents
The accuracy and professionalism of officer-involved shooting investigations can have a significant impact on involved officers, their respective agencies, community-law enforcement relations, and public perceptions...
Overtime
All law enforcement personnel must be mindful of and exercise fiscal responsibility in the use of public funds and resources. Overtime pay requires particular attention...
Every effort has been made by the IACP Law Enforcement Policy Center staff and advisory board to ensure that these documents incorporate the most current information and contemporary judgment on these issues. However, law enforcement administrators should be cautioned that no model policy can meet all the needs of any given law enforcement agency. In addition, the formulation of specific agency policies must take into account local political and community perspectives and customs, prerogatives, and demands; often divergent law enforcement strategies and philosophies; and the impact of varied agency resource capabilities, among other factors. Readers outside of the United States should note that, while these documents promote procedures reflective of a democratic society, their legal basis follows United States Supreme Court rulings and other federal laws and statutes. Law enforcement administrators should be cautioned that each law enforcement agency operates in a unique environment of court rulings, state laws, local ordinances, regulations, judicial and administrative decisions, and collective bargaining agreements that must be considered and should, therefore, consult their agency's legal advisor before implementing any policy.
The IACP Law Enforcement Policy Center documents are periodically updated, and the most current versions are published to this website. To minimize confusion and to help ensure reference to the most recent documents available, the IACP Policy Center does not distribute prior versions of any documents that have since been updated.
