(a) These Principles are intended to guide the conduct of all government entities whenever they search or seize persons or property, use or threaten to use force, conduct surveillance, gather and analyze evidence, or question potential witnesses or suspects. Entities that perform these functions are referred to as “agencies” throughout these Principles.(b) A subset of…

The goals of policing are to promote a safe and secure society, to preserve the peace, to address crime, and to uphold the law.

Agencies and officers must respect and protect the constitutional rights of all members of the public, including people suspected of crimes.

Agencies that exercise policing powers should, to the extent feasible, pursue the goals of policing in a way that reduces attendant or incidental harms. Toward that end, agencies should adopt rules, policies, and procedures that promote the preservation of life, liberty, and property; reduce the risk of injury to both members of the public and…

Agencies should, consistent with the need for confidentiality, be transparent and accountable, both internally within the agency and externally with the public.

(a) Agencies should operate subject to clear and accessible written rules, policies, and procedures. At a minimum, agencies should have rules, policies, or procedures on all aspects of policing that meaningfully affect the rights of members of the public or implicate the public interest.(b) Agency rules, policies, and procedures should—to the extent feasible and consistent…

(a) Agencies should ensure that individuals both outside and inside the agencies are treated in a fair and impartial manner, and are given voice in the decisions that affect them.(b) Agencies and officers should be truthful in their interactions with the public, with other government officials, and with the courts.

Policing agencies should work in partnership with their communities to jointly promote public safety and community wellbeing. Agencies should adopt a comprehensive organizational strategy that promotes and facilitates police−community partnerships through officer training, patrol assignments, metrics and performance evaluation, and department programs and initiatives.

All investigative and enforcement activity by officers or agencies should be based on, and should further, a legitimate policing objective.

Agencies may not engage in policing actions in order to generate revenue, and municipalities and states should not incentivize such actions.

Investigative activities should not be based on a person’s: (a) race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or other protected characteristic, unless these characteristics are part of a sufficiently specific suspect description; or (b) expressed or perceived belief, absent a plausible basis to conclude that the person is advocating conduct that poses a threat…

(a) The term “vulnerable populations” refers to individuals or groups who, by virtue of their age, identity, status, disability, or circumstance, may be particularly susceptible to criminal victimization and may face special challenges in their interactions with the police. (b) Officers should treat all members of the public, including those who are in vulnerable populations,…

(a) Officers should treat all victims or potential victims of crime with respect, empathy, and compassion. (b) Officers should conduct interviews with victims using trauma-informed techniques, and they should implement a streamlined reporting process in order to minimize re-traumatization. (c) Officers should accurately record and appropriately classify all reported crimes. Officers should treat all crime…

(a) A policing activity is “suspicion-based” when it is conducted with any cause to believe that the particular individual, place, or item subject to agency action is involved in prohibited conduct or is a threat to public safety, or that an individual is in need of aid.(b) A policing activity is suspicionless when it is…

For the purposes of these Principles, “information gathering” is any governmental action designed to acquire evidence of, or to deter, prohibited conduct that involves: (a) taking action that constitutes a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment; (b) using technology that enhances the natural senses to detect or to record information; (c) obtaining personally…

(a) The use of any information-gathering technique, as defined in § 2.02, which rises to the level of a constitutional “search” or “seizure” should be conducted pursuant to a judicially issued warrant, absent the ability to obtain one in a timely fashion.(b) When conducting a stop, search, frisk, or arrest, or engaging in other information-gathering…

(a) Officers engage in pretextual policing when they take action for which they lack authority or justification by relying instead on another reason for which they do have authority or justification, even though they would not have taken the action but for the primary motivation.(b) Agencies and officers should not use pretextual policing as a…

(a) Absent federal, state, or local law to the contrary, agencies may request that a third party (an individual or an entity) turn over, or provide access to, data, records, or physical evidence that either belong to, or contain personally identifiable information about, an individual who is the target of an investigation. When making such…

An agency should not use an algorithm or profile to direct police resources to a particular location, to identify potential targets for further investigation or surveillance, or to assess the risk of harm that individuals may pose to others unless: (a) the algorithm or profile has been shown to perform with acceptable accuracy, and it…

(a) A policing action constitutes a heightened intrusion if it raises special privacy or dignitary concerns, poses a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to an individual, or significant damage to property.(b) A policing action that involves a heightened intrusion only should be used when society’s interest in its use clearly outweighs the harm that…

(a) All government actors, including policing agencies, should take steps to mitigate the harms attendant to unnecessary, inaccurate, or stale warrants.(b) Legislative bodies and courts should limit the use of arrest warrants as an automatic response to an individual’s failure to appear in court, and they should promote the use of alternative strategies to ensure…

(a) For purposes of this Chapter, policing activity includes information gathering, seizures, and encounters, as those terms are used in Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of these Principles.(b) As stated in § 2.01(a), a policing activity is “suspicion-based” when it is conducted with any cause to believe that the particular individual, place, or item subject…

(a) Suspicion-based policing activities should be conducted only pursuant to a written policy that makes clear: (1) which personnel are authorized to utilize the method or technique in question; (2) what training is required before personnel are authorized to utilize it; (3) the predicate or level of cause that must be present to justify its…

Agencies should limit the scope of suspicion-based policing activities to that which is no broader than necessary to acquire the information or evidence that justifies the intrusion in question; and they should take steps to minimize the acquisition of information from third parties who themselves are not properly subject to investigation.

In order to facilitate agency supervision and public accountability, policing agencies should, when practicable: (a) require agency officials to document their use of suspicion-based policing activities; (b) periodically review agency use of suspicion-based activities to determine compliance with agency policy, assess their efficacy, identify any potential concerns associated with their use, and make appropriate changes…

(a) Agency requests for a court order or warrant should identify the policing activities used to obtain the information underlying the request, as well as the methods and techniques to be used in executing the order requested.(b) In cases in which the target is prosecuted, the agency or prosecutor should inform the target about any…

An encounter is a face-to-face interaction between an officer and a member of the public, conducted for the purpose of investigating unlawful conduct or performing a caretaking function. It does not include social, non-investigative, or non-caretaking interactions between a police official and a member of the public. Consistent with current law, this Chapter adopts the…

(1) conduct an initial encounter with an individual without any suspicion that the individual is involved in or has evidence of a crime; (2) conduct a stop of an individual based on reasonable suspicion to believe that the individual is involved in or has evidence of unlawful conduct; (3) issue a summons or a citation…

(a) Officers should exercise their authority to approach, stop, and arrest individuals, recognized in § 4.02, in a manner that promotes public safety and positive police–community relations, and minimizes harm. (b) Officers should establish the legitimacy of their encounters with members of the public by treating individuals with dignity and respect, explaining (insofar as is…

(a) During a stop, an officer may: (1) request identification and make other inquiries as necessary to investigate the crimes or violations for which the officer has reasonable suspicion; and (2) conduct a frisk of a person, or a protective sweep of the passenger compartment of a vehicle, based on reasonable suspicion to believe that…