IACP Law Enforcement Policy Center

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:

  • Model Policy: Provides officers with concrete guidance and directives by describing,  the manner in which actions, tasks, and operations are to be performed.

  • 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.

  • Concepts and Issues: Designed to provide background information on the topic to support the Model Policy or Considerations document.

  • 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.

 

Model Policies

All Policy Center Resources

Bicycle Patrol

Bicycle patrol officers are an important component of an agency's strategy for accomplishing its enforcement objectives due to their mobility and stealth as well as their...

Policy Center Resource

Body Armor

Law enforcement agencies should maximize officer safety through the use of body armor in combination with prescribed safety procedures. However, while body armor provides a significant...

Policy Center Resource

Body-Worn Cameras

Body-worn cameras provide officers with a reliable and compact tool to systematically and automatically record their field observations and encounters. They can be used for...

Policy Center Resource

Canines

Patrol canines can be utilized as a valuable supplement to police resources, due to their superior senses of smell and hearing and their physical capabilities...

Policy Center Resource

Child Abuse

Child abuse and neglect have been traditionally regarded as the principal responsibility of child protective services and social welfare agencies. However, research has demonstrated that a...

Policy Center Resource

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.

 

 

 

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