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 Alameda Police Department (APD) contracts with Lexipol for the generation, retention, updating, and publishing of 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. 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 Department, and APD and the City Attorney's Office were solely responsible for monitoring 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 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 about 9,000 legislative and regulatory changes to ensure the policy manuals it manages 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 APD's policy manual remaining more up-to-date, more easily accessible, and constantly reviewed by industry experts outside APD.
Although APD works with Lexipol for policy development and updates, APD also reviews Lexipol guidance and recommendations for what is appropriate for the Alameda community. Additionally, APD has the ability to use Lexipol recommendations as a baseline to create a more restrictive policy for implementation into operations.
At the September 20, 2022, City Council Meeting, City Council provided direction to staff to continue bringing policy updates/changes to the APD policy manual to Council for review and confirmation, but that the Chief of Police can make applicable updates/changes to the policy manual that would be valid and enforceable immediately, if they fall into to one of three categories: legal updates, imminent safety, and liability issues. All of the policy updates/changes outlined in this report fall into those categories and are already being implemented.
DISCUSSION
The following APD policies that require updating are listed in numerical order and then followed by a summary description of each update:
324 - Temporary Custody of Juveniles
374 - Biological Samples a Firearm
706 - Vehicle Use
902 - Custodial Searches
1022 - Seatbelts
324 - Temporary Custody of Juveniles
This policy has been updated to conform to the legislative intent of Senate Bill 395 and Senate Bill 203. In addition, the California Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) recently amended Title 15 regulations relating to local detention facilities. Exhibit 1, page 1
374 - Biological Samples
This policy has been updated because the California BSCC recently amended Title 15 regulations relating to biological samples. Exhibit 1, page 13
706 - Vehicle Use
This policy has been updated because California BSCC recently amended Title 15 regulations relating to local detention facilities and replaced outdated terminology, including how to refer to a person who is incarcerated. Exhibit 1, page 16
902 - Custodial Searches
This policy has been updated because the California BSCC recently amended Title 15 regulations relating to local detention facilities, replacing outdated terminology, including how to refer to a person who is incarcerated and by removing gendered pronouns. Exhibit 1, page 25
1022 - Seatbelts
This policy has been updated because the California BSCC recently amended Title 15 regulations relating to local detention facilities, replacing outdated terminology, including how to refer to an incarcerated person. Exhibit 1, page 31
ALTERNATIVES
• Approve the policy updates
• Do not approve the policy updates
• Modify the policy 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.
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
This action does not constitute a "project" as defined in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378, and therefore, no further CEQA analysis is required.
CLIMATE IMPACT
There are no identifiable climate impacts or climate action opportunities associated with the subject of this report.
RECOMMENDATION
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.
Respectfully submitted,
Nishant Joshi, Chief of Police
By,
Matt McMullen, Police Captain
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Margaret O’Brien, Finance Director
Exhibit:
1. Policy Updates