Title
Recommendation to Authorize Updates to the Existing Alameda Police Department Policy Manual to Conform to Best Practices and to Ratify Policies that Have Been Updated Pursuant to Legal Updates, Significant Liability Issues, and Imminent Safety. (Police 10031100)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Jennifer Ott, City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of Alameda (City) Police Department (APD) remains committed to the timely adoption of sound policies and procedures so it can deliver procedurally just service that aligns with best practices and industry standards. To effectively accomplish this:
* APD contracts with a policy development company (Lexipol) to generate, retain, update, and publish the APD 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, and
* In addition to Lexipol, APD further engages in regular reviews and proposes policy modifications when operational changes occur or when the need for new internal procedures are identified. This report provides recommended changes to various policies based on legal developments and/or recommended best practices.
This report provides recommended changes to various policies based on legal developments and/or recommended best practices.
BACKGROUND
Before Lexipol, APD operated on a set of General Orders that functioned as a policy manual for APD. At that time, APD and the City Attorney's Office were solely responsible for:
* Monitoring evolving best practices.
* Staying abreast of relevant new case law and changes in legislation.
* Updating and modifying the General Orders to include new best practices and laws; and
* Printing and disseminating updated/modified General Orders to APD personnel.
This time-consuming and cumbersome process required a tremendous amount of City resources.
Approximately 12 years ago, APD entered...
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