Part I. General Principles
Standard 1-1.1. Complexity of police task
(a) Since police, as an agency of the criminal justice system, have a major responsibility for dealing with serious crime, efforts should continually be made to improve the capacity of police to discharge this responsibility effectively. It should also be recognized, however, that police effectiveness in dealing with crime is often largely dependent upon the effectiveness of other agencies both within and outside the criminal justice system. Those in the system must work together through liaison, cooperation, and constructive joint effort. This effort is vital to the effective operation of the police and the entire criminal justice system
(b) To achieve optimum police effectiveness, the police should be recognized as having complex and multiple tasks to perform in addition to identifying and apprehending persons committing serious criminal offenses. Such other police tasks include protection of certain rights such as to speak and to assemble, participation either directly or in conjunction with other public and social agencies in the prevention of criminal and delinquent behavior, maintenance of order and control of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, resolution of conflict, and assistance to citizens in need of help such as a disabled person.
(c) Recommendations made in these standards are based on the view that this diversity of responsibility is likely to continue and, more importantly, that police authority and skills are needed to handle appropriately a wide variety of community problems.
Part II. Police Objectives and Priorities
Standard 1-2.1. Factors accounting for responsibilities given police
The wide range of government tasks currently assigned to police has been given, to a great degree, without any coherent planning by state or local governments of what the overriding objectives or priorities of the police should be. Instead, what police do is determined largely on an ad hoc basis by a number of factors which influence their involvement in responding to various government or community needs. These factors include:
(a) broad legislative mandates to the police;
(b) the authority of the police to use force lawfully;
(c) the investigative ability of the police;
(d) the twenty-four-hour availability of the police;
(e) community pressures on the police; and
(f) court decisions.
Standard 1-2.2. Major current responsibilities of police
In assessing appropriate objectives and priorities for police service, local communities should initially recognize that most police agencies are currently given responsibility, by design or default, to:
(a) identify criminal offenders and criminal activity and, where appropriate, to apprehend offenders and participate in subsequent court proceedings;
(b) reduce the opportunities for the commission of some crimes through preventive patrol and other measures;
(c) aid individuals who are in danger of physical harm;
(d) protect constitutional guarantees;
(e) facilitate the movement of people and vehicles;
(f) assist those who cannot care for themselves;
(g) resolve conflict;
(h) identify problems that are potentially serious law enforcement or governmental problems;
(i) create and maintain a feeling of security in the community;
(j)) promote and preserve civil order; and
(k) provide other services on an emergency basis.
Standard 1-2.3. Need for local objectives and priorities
While the scope and objectives of the exercise of the government's police power are properly determined in the first instance by state and local legislative bodies within the limits fixed by the Constitution and by court decisions, it should be recognized that there is considerable latitude remaining with local government to develop an overall direction for police services. Within these limits, each local jurisdiction should decide upon objectives and priorities. Decisions regarding police resources, police personnel needs, police organization, and relations with other government agencies should then be made in a way that will best achieve the objectives and priorities of a particular locality.
Standard 1-2.4. General criteria for objectives and priorities
In formulating an overall direction for police services and in selecting appropriate objectives and priorities for the police, communities should be guided by certain principles that should be inherent in a democratic society:
(a) The highest duties of government, and therefore the police, are to safeguard freedom, to preserve life and property, to protect the constitutional rights of citizens and maintain respect for the rule of law by proper enforcement thereof, and, thereby, to preserve democratic processes.
(b) Implicit within this duty, the police have the responsibility for maintaining that degree of public order which is consistent with freedom and which is essential if our diverse society is to be maintained.
(c) In implementing their varied responsibilities, police must provide maximum opportunity for achieving desired social change by freely available, lawful, and orderly means.
(d) In order to maximize the use of the special authority and ability of the police, it is appropriate for government, in developing objectives and priorities for police services, to give emphasis to those social and behavioral problems which may require the use of force or the use of special investigative abilities which the police possess. Given the awesome authority of the police to use force and the priority that must be given to preserving life, however, government should firmly establish the principle that the police should be restricted to using the amount of force reasonably necessary in responding to any situation.
Part IV. Law Enforcement Policy Making
Standard 1-4.1. Exercise of discretion by police
The nature of the responsibilities currently placed upon the police requires that the police exercise a great deal of discretion -- a situation that has long existed but is not always recognized.
Standard 1-4.2. Need for structure and control
Since individual police officers may make important decisions affecting police operations without direction, with limited accountability, and without any uniformity within a department, police discretion should be structured and controlled.
Part V. Control Over Police Authority
Standard 1-5.1. Need for accountability
Since a principal function of police is the safeguarding of democratic processes, high priority must be given for ensuring that the police are made fully accountable to their police administrator and to the public for their actions.
Standard 1-5.2. Need for positive approaches
Control over police practice should, insofar as possible, be positive, creating inducements to perform properly rather than concentrating solely upon penalizing improper police conduct. Among the ways this can be accomplished are:
(a) education and training oriented to the development of professional pride in conforming to the requirements of law and maximizing the values of a democratic society;
(b) inducements to police officers in terms of status, compensation, and promotion, on the basis of criteria that are related as directly as possible to the police function and police goals;
(c) elimination of responsibilities where there is a community expectation that police will “do something” but adequate lawful authority is not provided. Either the needed authority should be given or the police should be relieved of the responsibility;
(d) systematic efforts by prosecutors and judges to encourage conforming police behavior through:
(i) a more careful review of applications for warrants;
(ii) formulation of new procedures to simplify and otherwise provide easy access for judicial review of applications for warrants, thereby encouraging maximum use of the formal warrant process; and
(iii) formally advising the police administrator when improper police conduct is detected, in order to facilitate corrective action.
(e) recognition by legislatures and courts of police discretion, clarification of police authority to develop administrative policies to control police actions, and the requirement that police do develop such policies; and
(f) effective involvement of the community in the development of police programs.
Standard 1-5.3. Sanctions
(a) Current methods of review and control of police activities include the following sanctions:
(i) the exclusion of evidence obtained by unconstitutional means;
(ii) criminal and tort liability for knowingly engaging in unlawful conduct;
(iii) injunctive actions to terminate a pattern of unlawful conduct; and
(iv) local procedures for handling complaints against police officers, procedures which usually operate administratively within police departments.
(b) Legislatures should clarify the authority of police agencies to develop substantive and procedural rules controlling police authority – particularly regarding investigatory methods, the use of force, and enforcement policies – and creating methods for discovering and dealing with abuses of that authority. Where adequate administrative sanctions are in effect, evidence obtained in violation of administrative rules should not be excluded in criminal proceedings.
Standard 1-5.4. Tort liability
In order to strengthen the effectiveness of the tort remedy for improper police activities, governmental immunity, where it still exists, should be eliminated, and legislation should be enacted providing that governmental subdivisions shall be fully liable for the actions of police officers who are acting within the scope of their employment. Neither tort liability nor costs attendant to the defense of a tort action should be imposed upon a police officer for wrongful conduct that has been ordered by a superior or is affirmatively authorized by police rules or regulations unless the conduct is a violation of the criminal law. Instead, liability and incidental costs and expenses in such cases should be borne by the governmental subdivision.
Part IX. Public Understanding And Support
Standard 1-9.1. Contribution of the legal profession
Members of the legal profession should play an active role, individually and collectively, in developing local government policies relating to the police, in supporting needed changes in the form of police services, and in educating the total community on the importance and complexity of the police function. Among other things, each local bar association should appoint a special committee with which the police administrator can confer as to appropriate means of achieving objectives proposed in these standards.
Part X. Evaluation
Standard 1-10.2 Responsibility of society and government generally
The recommendations made in these standards require particular attention at the level of municipal government. Along with the recommendations relating specifically to police agencies, however, it should be recognized that police effectiveness is also dependent, in the long run, upon:
(a) the ability of government to maintain faith in democratic processes as the appropriate and effective means by which to achieve change and to redress individual grievances; the willingness of society to devote resources to alleviating the despair of the culturally, socially, and economically deprived; and
(c) the improvement of the criminal justice, juvenile justice, mental health, and public health systems as effective ways of dealing with a wide variety of social and behavioral problems, such as improvements in programs to provide assistance to citizens in need of help such as the person who is disabled.