FOREWORD
Welcome to the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police (AACP) Model Policies page. The AACP would like to recognize and acknowledge the following critical partners in the preparation of the policies provided: Arkansas Municipal League, Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training, University of Arkansas Criminal Justice Institute, Arkansas State Police, Arkansas Tactical Officers Association, the Arkansas Sheriffs' Association, Legal Liability and Risk Management Institute/Public Agency Training Council (LLRMI/PATC), and law enforcement agencies across this state. LLRMI/PATC and Arkansas Municipal League General Counsel have reviewed policies provided herein for federal, state, and generally accepted best management practices compliance. Policies provided are free of charge to all Arkansas law enforcement agencies (ALEA’s).
The AACP model policy project began with an idea born from the members of the AACP around 2010. This idea grew to the establishment of a formal State Accreditation and Model Policy Committee (SAMPC) comprised of critical partners throughout the state of Arkansas. The AACP Executive Board of Directors entered into a contract with LLRMI/PATC for the purpose of drafting and vetting model policies for the state of Arkansas that addressed high risk/critical tasks of ALEA’s. In the summer of 2012, the AACP Executive Board of Directors approved the first edition of the AACP Model Policies for distribution.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this project is to provide high risk/critical incident policies to police managers for use in their departments. While it is not possible or advantageous to attempt to draft model policies for every function or task of every ALEA, all agencies share common legal obligations related to certain high risk tasks, as well as generally accepted best management practices. The provided policies were drafted with smaller agencies in mind that may not have staff, time, or resources to address policy management; however, all policies were drafted to provide an attractive resource for all agencies. It is our hope and goal that all ALEA’s will utilize these resources. Agencies may add to this product to alter procedures best suited for their departments.
Policies provided are color coded to signify the importance of the information provided in the policy. Green lettering indicates that the wording is derived from federal law, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, or Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decisions. Red lettering indicates that the wording is derived from Arkansas state law or Arkansas Supreme Court decisions. Blue lettering indicates that the wording was derived from best management practices established by important industry partners such as IACP, PERF, and others. Black lettering indicates wording suggested by LLRMI/PATC or the SAMPC, but may be freely changed by police administrators to meet the needs of their department. As you will notice, some of the policies require agencies to make a decision regarding a particular procedure and/or requires agencies to enter their choice of wording in blank spaces.
ADDITIONAL SERVICES
In addition to providing high risk/critical incident policies to all ALEA’s in the state of Arkansas, AACP and the Arkansas Municipal League have agreed to share expenses for the cost of updating and training the provided policies.
In the event federal law, state law or generally accepted best practices change, LLRMI/PATC will provide updates to these policies. In many cases, these updates will occur within 48 hours of a major court decision. All changes to policies will be published on the AACP website and be available for dissemination to all policy users. Pre-revised policies will be archived for access and retrieval.
Training of model policies provided will take place in two forms:
1) Initial Training
2) Ongoing Training
Initial training is available free of charge for all agencies who elect to use AACP Model Policies upon its initial release. Initial training is limited to three training offerings and will not be an ongoing process. Initial Trainings are primarily train the trainer events led by LLRMI/PATC and scheduled throughout the state of Arkansas to help agencies learn and adapt to the new policies.
Ongoing web based training is available for ALEA’s that are members of AACP. An ALEA that has a minimum of one AACP member may offer the web-based training to all officers within their department. Web-based training includes both roll call type trainings approximately 5 minutes in length and webinar trainings approximately 1 hour in duration. All Trainings are constitutionally based. Administrators may electronically track the training their officers receive via the LLRMI/PATC administrative site.
We hope you enjoy this valuable product. Should you have any further questions, please contact the AACP office at (501) 372-4600 or (877) 818-7428.
Sincerely,
Chief Greg Donaldson
AACP President, 2011-2012