Title
Recommendation to Authorize the Chief of Police to Update Section 444 - Watch Commanders and Section 814 - Computers and Digital Evidence within the Existing Alameda Police Department Policy Manual to Conform With Best Practices and Operational Changes. (Police 10031100)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Alameda Police Department (PD) contracts with Lexipol for the generation, retention, updating, and publishing of our policy manual. Part of the contract includes periodic review and revision of the policy manual to reflect current best practices, emerging case law, and new legislative changes/mandates. The PD also has the ability to modify policies when operational changes occur or when new internal procedures are identified.
BACKGROUND
Before Lexipol, PD operated on a set of General Orders that functioned as a policy manual for the Police Department. Under the General Orders concept, the policy manual was a paper document. PD and the City Attorney's Office were required to monitor evolving best practices, new case law, and changes in legislation. Those new practices and laws would then have to be distilled into a new or modified General Order, which would then be printed and disseminated for training at the PD. This was a time-consuming and cumbersome process that required a tremendous amount of City of Alameda (City) resources.
Approximately ten years ago, the PD entered into an agreement with Lexipol to create, maintain, update and publish a policy manual. Lexipol is a risk management company that specializes in the creation of electronic public safety policy manuals. It currently serves approximately 8,100 public safety agencies/municipalities. Last year, Lexipol reviewed about 9,000 legislative and regulatory changes to ensure the policy manuals it manages to stay as current and comprehensive as possible. In addition, the pooling of resources caused by having so many public agencies obtaining their policy manuals from a single source and utilizing an easily changeable electronic format allows for near real-time policy manual updating and instantaneous notification to employees of updates. In short, using Lexipol has resulted in the PD's policy manual remaining more up-to-date, more easily accessible, and constantly reviewed by industry experts outside of the PD.
On June 14, 2020, the City Council directed that no changes be made to the PD Policy Manual without bringing the changes before the City Council for discussion.
DISCUSSION
The PD would like to make an operational change to its On-Call Watch Commander responsibilities and provide more direction to employees when handling digital evidence. The policies presented are listed below with a description of the proposed change.
Policies recommended for update:
APD Policy #444-Watch Commanders
The PD has a Watch Commander, a sworn employee who holds the rank of Lieutenant, on duty from 6:30 am through 2:00 am. In addition, between the hours of 2:00 am, and 6:00 am, or during times when Watch Commanders are away at training or on vacation, the PD utilizes an on-call Watch Commander to assist supervisors as needed. The current policy is rigid and only allows one Watch Commander to be on-call during a 24-hour period, covering seven consecutive days.
The PD would like to change the policy to be more flexible, allowing the Watch Commander to incorporate their on-call coverage into their designated workweek. The change would provide more consistent Watch Commander coverage for the on-duty supervisors and spread the workload out more evenly during the week. We currently have four Patrol Watch Commanders, one Investigations Division Commander, and one Services Division Commander. The majority of the on-call coverage would be distributed amongst the Patrol Watch Commanders. In addition, the Investigations and Services Division Commanders would cover training and vacation relief. The policy language would be less restrictive as to the timeframes one Watch Commander would be on-call but would mandate the PD have a Watch Commander 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
APD Policy #814-Computers and Digital Evidence
The PD would like to add two bullet points to section 814.5.3, Downloading Digital Files. Bullet point C would instruct PD employees to process digital evidence storage devices into PD Property and Evidence storage as soon as possible. Bullet point D would require PD employees to take reasonable steps to provide citizens with a replacement digital media storage device when police personnel are provided one by a citizen. Replacement digital media storage devices would be supplied by the Department.
ALTERNATIVES
• Approve the policy updates
• Do not approve the updates
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is no financial impact from approving the policy updates from Lexipol. Funding for the Lexipol contract is currently included under the Police Administrative Services division budget. Replacement digital media storage devices will be financed through current PD funding sources.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
The policy referenced is from the APD Policy Manual, as published by Lexipol. See the Discussion section for the policy number.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) applies only to projects that have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. This action is not a project pursuant to Public Resources Code section 21065 and CEQA Guidelines section 15378.
CLIMATE IMPACT
There are no identifiable climate impacts or climate action opportunities associated with the subject of this report.
RECOMMENDATION
Authorize the Chief of Police to update Section 444 -Watch Commanders and Section 814 -Computers and Digital Evidence of the existing Alameda Police Department Policy Manual. to conform with best practices and operational changes.
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
The City Manager concurs with the Police Chiefs’ recommendation.
Respectfully submitted,
Nishant Joshi, Chief of Police
By,
Jeffery Emmitt, Police Captain
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Annie To, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. Draft Policy 444
2. Draft Policy 814
cc: Eric Levitt, City Manager