IACP Policy Center

For more than 30 years, the IACP Policy Center has been identifying leading practices and providing sound guidance to the policing profession to assist in developing policies for individual departments.

Policy Center Resources

The Policy Center offers four types of resources:

• Model Policy: Provides officers with concrete guidance and directives by describing, the manner in which actions, tasks, and operations are to be performed.
• Considerations: Intended to present items for agencies to take into account when developing their own policies on a topic. This format recognizes that expectations and capabilities vary by agency, and it aims to present recommendations to the policing field without dictating exact approaches.
• Concepts and Issues: Designed to provide background information on the topic to support the Model Policy or Considerations document.
• Need to Know. Synthesizes the key points of the topic into a brief, one-page overview.

V isit the Policy Center directory.

Policy Center Glossary

The Policy Center offers a glossary of terms used within guidance provided. The definitions are based on those provided in existing guidance from the IACP Policy Center. Specific definitions may vary by agency, jurisdiction, or local statute.

Visit the Policy Center Glossary.

Featured Policy Center Resources

Active Attack*

In active attack situations, where ongoing deadly force is reasonably likely to be employed by a suspect(s) and delay in taking police action could result.

Specialized Units

It can be beneficial for police leaders to have access to specialized units that are adequately trained, staffed, and equipped to address situations their agencies.

Welfare Checks

Welfare checks are requests for the police to check on an individual due to concern for their safety or well-being. Reasons for such requests vary.

Electronic Control Weapons

Law enforcement officers should use only the force that is objectively reasonable to effectively bring an incident under control, while protecting the safety of the.