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
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...
Traffic Incident Management
Effective management of traffic incidents is crucial to the safe and efficient use of roadways. Coordinated multiagency response to detect, respond to, and remove traffic incidents...
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...
Criminal Intelligence
Information gathering is a fundamental and essential element in the all-encompassing duties of any law enforcement agency. When acquired, information is used to prevent crime...
Pregnancy
A diverse police workforce is a valuable asset, and trained and experienced female police officers are critical resources. Pregnancy is a temporary physical condition, unique to...
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...
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...
See how the COVID-19 Policy was Created
All Policy Center Resources
Electronic Messaging
The availability and use of the personal computer within the work environment have provided many opportunities for enhancement of productivity and effectiveness. These technologies also...
Electronic Recording of Interrogations and Confessions
Emergency Vehicular Warning Devices
All members of a law enforcement agency should adhere to statutory restrictions on the use of emergency warning devices and ensure that such devices are employed...
Employee Drug Policy
The critical mission of law enforcement establishes a compelling need to maintain a drug-free work environment. Employees who engage in unauthorized use of controlled substances...
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...
Employee Misconduct
Evacuations
In any emergency or threat environment, law enforcement agencies should determine the necessity and the means to evacuate citizens from imminent danger. The safety of persons...
Evidence Control
Law enforcement agencies should develop policies to ensure that evidence in its custody is properly secured and stored, readily retrievable, and that any changes in its...
Excited Delirium
Law enforcement agencies should develop a cooperative response protocol shared by the agency, the emergency call center, emergency medical services (EMS), and hospital emergency department staff. The...
Executing Search Warrants
Law enforcement agencies should identify techniques to accomplish a thorough and legal search; respect the constitutional rights of the person(s) the warrant is being served upon...
Eyewitness Identification
Law enforcement agencies should develop evidence-based guidelines for effectively conducting eyewitness identifications in order to maximize the reliability of identifications, minimize erroneous identifications, and gather evidence...
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...
Family and Medical Leave
Law enforcement agencies should provide personnel with an understanding of the leave provided under federal law by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993...
Field Interviews and Pat-Down Searches
Fire Response
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...
Firearms: Officer Carry, Training, and Safety
The safe handling and proper use of firearms should be among the highest priorities of any law enforcement agency. Because of the inherent danger of...
Foot Pursuits
Foot pursuits are inherently dangerous. Therefore, officer and public safety should be the overriding considerations in determining whether a foot pursuit is initiated or continued...
Grievance Procedures
Every employee has the right to be treated fairly in matters arising from employment and have the opportunity to be heard fully any time his or...
Grooming and Appearance
The professional and uniform appearance of officers furthers the goals of law enforcement agencies by projecting a positive and professional image to the public. Appearance standards...
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.
