IACP Policy Center Topic Directory
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.
Model Policies
All Policy Center Resources
Hate Crimes
Any acts or threats of violence, property damage, harassment, intimidation, or other crimes motivated by hate and bias and designed to infringe upon the rights...
HIV/AIDS Prevention
These documents provide guidelines for law enforcement officers in preventing the contraction of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
This topic has been archived -...
Holding Facilities
Law enforcement agencies must provide secure temporary holding facilities for detainees held for interrogation, arrest processing, transfer to another facility, or pursuant to another legal...
Hostage Situations
Law enforcement agencies should generally respond to and take necessary steps to free innocent persons who are endangered and being held illegally against their will...
Identity Theft
Identity theft affects millions of people every year, causing serious and sometimes devastating financial, psychological, and reputational injury. By providing timely and effective assistance, law...
Impact Projectiles
The availability of less-lethal weapons can assist officers in de-escalation of potentially violent confrontations and provide additional alternatives to the use of deadly force. Impact...
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...
Inspections
Inspections of law enforcement agencies should be conducted on a regular basis to help ensure that the department is operating at peak efficiency and in compliance...
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities*
Law enforcement personnel should be trained to recognize persons with I/DD; treat people with I/DD with dignity and respect; utilize de-escalation protocols when appropriate; and seek alternatives...
Interrogations and Confessions
Custodial interrogations of suspects and the statements and confessions that are elicited are vitally important in the preparation of criminal cases. However, to be admissible...
Interviewing and Interrogating Juveniles
The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized the emotional and developmental differences between adults and juveniles and the implications that this has on the conduct of...
Juvenile Curfew Enforcement
If curfew laws are to be effective, they must be enforced in a consistent, fair and uniform manner. In addition, to be properly evaluated, enforcement...
Juvenile Diversion and Custody
A law enforcement agency’s goal should be to coordinate juvenile justice and delinquency prevention that meets the needs of juveniles, while holding juveniles accountable for...
Knife Safety and Usage
Law enforcement agencies should provide guidelines on the selection of departmentally approved police duty knives, knives an officer may carry, and how and when knives may...
Law Enforcement Fire Response
License Plate Readers
The availability and use of license plate recognition (LPR) systems have provided many opportunities for the enhancement of productivity, effectiveness, and officer safety.
These documents provide officers...
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...
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 policing 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.
