The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Law Enforcement Policy Center (Policy Center) was created through a partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance in 1987. The goal of the Policy Center has been and continues to be assisting law enforcement agencies in the critical and difficult task of developing and refining law enforcement policy. For each topic, at least two documents are developed—a Model Policy and a Concepts & Issues Paper. The policy document is best described as “what to do,” while the paper explains “why it should be done.” The paper also delves into the topic’s relevance and discusses considerations that go beyond the policy. More recently, a third document, a one-page overview, “Need to Know…” has been added to all new model policy topics. The documents are designed to be used by agencies while developing or revising their own policies and procedures, with the Model Policy serving as a template.
The funding and management of the Policy Center was officially assumed by the IACP in 2016, and access to the Policy Center’s documents became an exclusive benefit for IACP members and IACP Net subscribers. This time of transition presented an opportunity to consider the existing role and function of the Policy Center. As a result, the Policy Center staff conducted a series of four focus groups across the United States and Canada. The focus groups were designed to provide IACP members and other consumers of Policy Center documents with an opportunity to provide feedback on how law enforcement policies and procedures are drafted in individual agencies and ways the Policy Center can best assist in those efforts. Focus group participants provided valuable information regarding the influence of the Policy Center on policy development on the individual agency level, as well as how the Policy Center could better meet the policy needs of law enforcement.
Following the focus groups, the IACP took the insights and comments from the participants and developed a strategic plan for the Policy Center’s operations moving forward. The first step was refining the mission of the Policy Center, which is now “to utilize the reach of the IACP to identify leading practices and provide sound guidance to law enforcement agencies in an effort to assist them in the development of their own policies.”1 Second, to better respond to the stated needs of the membership and to exemplify the core values of the association, the Policy Center operations are now designed to incorporate the expertise of members of its committees, sections, and divisions, in conjunction with the knowledge of other leading professionals in the field of law enforcement, to create documents that will assist IACP members in the pursuit of excellence in the delivery of law enforcement services.
Moving forward, the Policy Center will strive to respond in a nimbler manner to the changing needs of those tasked with developing law enforcement policies and procedures. Recent changes include the following:
• An updated website, www.theIACP.org/model-policy. The newly redesigned website allows visitors to navigate to more than 120 topics by name, category, or keyword search. Documents are provided in PDF, Word, and now HTML format, for optimized viewing on mobile devices.
• Increased involvement of IACP committees, sections, and div-isions in the development of all Policy Center documents. The Policy Center now relies on small, short-term working groups, comprising several members of IACP committees, sections, and divisions with the requisite subject matter expertise. These working groups are tasked with the review and refinement of the content related to a single topic. This is combined with an in-depth review of all Policy Center documents by the standing Policy Center Advisory Group. Through the involvement of numerous professionals with expertise in each topic, the Policy Center can ensure that the documents it produces reflect the most comprehensive, collaborative approach to each topic.
• An accelerated publication schedule of both new and updated Policy Center documents. As an example, the Policy Center published updated documents on four new topics in the first three months of 2018—Domestic Violence, Electronic Control Weapons, Employee Drug Policy, and Identity Theft, and additional topics are currently being developed and updated.
These existing changes will be supplemented by additional refinement of Policy Center operations and deliverables. In the future, the Policy Center will expand its offerings to include the development of training materials for those topics that are deemed to be the most critical areas to the law enforcement profession. Additionally, the focus might shift to providing more general guidance on individual policy topics. This shift is intended to make Policy Center documents applicable to more agencies, recognizing both regional and international differences in law enforcement policy and procedures. The Policy Center will also continue to solicit feedback from the field, holding regular focus groups to gauge whether new initiatives are meeting the needs of IACP members.
Building upon the foundation of over 30 years of policy development, the Policy Center will continue to recognize and respond to the changing needs of law enforcement policy makers across the globe. The goal of this updated, revised approach is to ensure the Policy Center remains one of the primary benefits of IACP membership. ♦
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1“IACP Law Enforcement Policy Center,” http://www.theiacp.org/model-policy.
