IACP Policy Center
For more than 30 years, the IACP Policy Center has been identifying leading practices and providing sound guidance to the policing 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 policing 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.
Visit the Policy Center directory.
Policy Center Glossary
The Policy Center offers a glossary of terms used within guidance provided. The definitions are based on those provided in existing guidance from the IACP Policy Center. Specific definitions may vary by agency, jurisdiction, or local statute.
Visit the Policy Center Glossary.
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...
Cannabis Legalization and Police Personnel Management
Agencies across the globe are navigating evolving legislation regarding cannabis. The legalization of cannabis in some jurisdictions compels police agencies to examine if and how...
Incident Command
Many police agencies utilize the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as the primary method to prepare for, respond to, and manage incidents. NIMS is a comprehensive...
Active Attack*
In active attack situations, where ongoing deadly force is reasonably likely to be employed by a suspect(s) and delay in taking police action could result...
Specialized Units
It can be beneficial for police leaders to have access to specialized units that are adequately trained, staffed, and equipped to address situations their agencies...
Every effort has been made by the IACP Policy Center staff and advisory board to ensure that these documents incorporate the most current information and contemporary judgment on these issues. However, police administrators should be cautioned that no model policy can meet all the needs of any given police 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 police 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. Police administrators should be cautioned that each police 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 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.
