This brief discusses how police-led multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) can improve the effectiveness of care and reduce officer strain, but they also require structure and collaboration, including clearly defined responsibilities, careful planning, and collaborative training sessions.

Adapted from  Barros, J. T., & Petreca, V. G. (2025). Police-led multidisciplinary teams in crisis response: Integrating behavioral health and law enforcement. Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X251370242.

Submitted by: Forensics Committee
Co-sponsored by: Police Investigative Operations Committee

WHEREAS the process of medicolegal death investigation has important implications for
criminal justice, public health, public safety communities; and

WHEREAS United States (US) medicolegal death investigation system structures (coroner and
medical examiner offices) vary by state, county, and city; and

WHEREAS law enforcement roles in medicolegal death investigation vary by state, county, and
city; and

WHEREAS the law enforcement and medicolegal death investigation systems have independent
but overlapping responsibilities; and

WHEREAS medicolegal death investigation officials are responsible for determining cause and
manner of death, and thereby responsible for identifying deaths which may be criminal in nature; and

WHEREAS medicolegal death investigation quality may hinder or aid law enforcement efforts to
investigate deaths that are criminal in nature; and

WHEREAS efforts to the improve and standardize US medicolegal death investigation includes
development of standards, certification of medicolegal death investigators, and accreditation of medicolegal death investigation offices; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED that the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) encourages all law enforcement agencies to facilitate cooperation and collaboration with their local medicolegal
death investigation systems in a manner that ensures the best possible outcome of all medicolegal death investigations, including criminal investigations; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED that law enforcement agencies should consider encouraging coroner and
medical examiner offices to have all medicolegal death investigators certified and all coroner
and medical examiner offices accredited in order to promote and support the highest possible
quality of medicolegal death investigation in all cities, counties, and states.

Submitted by: Private Sector Liaison Section

WHEREAS, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) supports efforts of the life safety, alarm, and electronic security industries, represented by the Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) and Partnership for Priority Verified Alarm Response (PPVAR); and,

WHEREAS, IACP recognizes the importance of strong relationships between law enforcement and the private sector; and,

WHEREAS, IACP recognizes the importance of accurate timely communicated information to maximize officer safety and efficiency in the deployment of law enforcement resources; and,

WHEREAS, IACP acknowledges that correctly installed, operated and monitored electronic security systems are effective resources which help to deter crime, assist in apprehensions, reduce property loss and potentially save lives; and,

WHEREAS, IACP recognizes the need to focus on the credibility of alarms received by law enforcement/first responder call centers from alarm companies and private entities through the establishment of defined threat levels as contained in AVS-01, will allow for agencies to deploy limited resources efficiently and communicate situational information to responding officers for greater officer/community safety, is duly vetted and recommended by the Private Sector Liaison Section; and,

WHEREAS, IACP recognizes the need for and value of communicated threat levels as defined in AVS-01 to achieve the desired expectation of greater alarm recipient and officer safety as well as the ability to better manage resources as experienced by police agencies; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED that the IACP encourages the use of this ANSI/TMA-AVS-01 2023 Alarm Validation Scoring Standard at all PSAP/ECC operations by law enforcement agencies to further enhance safety and alarm call awareness for the responding officers.