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
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Alameda Police Department (APD) contracts with Lexipol for the generation, retention, updating, and publishing of the 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. In addition to Lexipol, APD further engages in regular review 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.
BACKGROUND
Before Lexipol, APD operated on a set of General Orders that functioned as a policy manual for the Police Department. APD 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 be distilled into a new or modified General Order, then printed and disseminated for training at APD. This time-consuming and cumbersome process required a tremendous amount of City of Alameda (City) resources.
Approximately eleven years ago, APD 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 approximately 9,000 legislative and regulatory changes to ensure the policy manuals it manages stay as current and comprehensive as possible. In ad...
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