Apopka Police Department Bias-Free Policing PDF

APOPKA POLICE DEPARTMENT PROCEDURAL GENERAL ORDERS Effective Date 07-24-23 Subject 8623.00 ❑New ❑Rescinds BIAS-FREE POLICING Reference CFA Standard(s) F.S.S. 166.0493 Florida Police Chief's Association 2.06M Reevaluation As Necessary Number Application All Employees Amends 11-20-19 Reviewer/Approved...

APOPKA POLICE DEPARTMENT PROCEDURAL GENERAL ORDERS Effective Date 07-24-23 Subject 8623.00 ❑New ❑Rescinds BIAS-FREE POLICING Reference CFA Standard(s) F.S.S. 166.0493 Florida Police Chief's Association 2.06M Reevaluation As Necessary Number Application All Employees Amends 11-20-19 Reviewer/Approved by McKinley McMaster Related Forms / Bulletins PURPOSE: The purpose of this policy is to affirm the Apopka Police Department’s commitment to unbiased policing in all encounters between police officers and citizens and to reinforce procedures that serve to maintain public confidence by providing service and enforcing laws in a fair and equitable manner. DISCUSSION: It is the policy of the Apopka Police Department to patrol in a proactive manner, to aggressively investigate suspicious persons and circumstances, and to actively enforce state statutes and City ordinances in accordance with law. The Apopka Police Department prohibits biased policing in all police-initiated actions. These include all investigative detentions, field contacts, traffic contacts, arrests, searches, asset seizures, and forfeiture efforts. Members’ actions will be based on a standard of reasonable suspicion or probable cause as required by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and statutory authority. Members must be able to articulate specific facts, circumstances, and conclusions which support reasonable suspicion for an investigative detention, traffic stop, or probable cause for arrest. Members shall not consider race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation in establishing either reasonable suspicion, probable cause, or as a basis for requesting consent to search. Criminal profiling is a legitimate tool in the fight against crime. It is an investigative method in which a member, through observation of Bias Free Policing Page 1 of 4 activities and environment, identifies suspicious behavior by individuals and develops a legal basis, consistent with the Fourth Amendment, to detain and question. However, illegal profiling refers to a decision by a member to stop, detain, interdict, or search an individual based on the race, color, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, or national origin. The Department prohibits illegal profiling as a law enforcement tactic and will not tolerate or condone its use by any member. DEFINITIONS: Biased policing – The inappropriate consideration of specified characteristics while enforcing the law or providing police services. Specified characteristics incudes, but is not limited to, race, ethnic background, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, age, disability, political status, or any other legally protected characteristics. Reasonable suspicion – a legal standard of proof that is less than probable cause, the legal standard for arrests and warrants, but more than an inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or hunch; it must be based on specific and articulable facts, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, and the suspicion must be associated with the specific individual. Reasonable suspicion is evaluated using the reasonable person or reasonable officer standard, in which said person in the same circumstances could reasonably suspect a person has been, is, or is about to be engaged in criminal activity; it depends upon the totality of the circumstances, and can result from a combination of particular facts, even if each is individually innocuous. POLICY / PROCEDURE: I. Education Programs: A. Training Department Members: Training programs will be designed to emphasize the need to respect the rights of all citizens to be free from unreasonable government intrusion or police action. The training of agency enforcement personnel will incorporate fair and impartial policing, including legal aspects in accordance with Florida Statutes. The initial training will include all Officers. All newly hired members will be provided training during orientation, to include FDLE’s online Discriminatory Profiling and Professional Traffic Stops. Bias Free Policing Page 2 of 4 B. Community Education: The department will inform the public of its policy statement from this order against biased policing. This statement will be posted on the department's community bulletin board located at the police department headquarters, as well as on the agency’s website. A copy of this policy will be made readily available to any person requesting it at no cost to the requesting party. II. Detention of Persons: A. Reasonable Suspicion: 1. Persons will only be subject to detention upon reasonable suspicion that they have committed, are committing, or are about to commit a violation of law. Detention may be based on an Officer’s observations combined with his/her training and experience, and/or information from reliable sources. 2. Officers may consider the reported race, ethnicity or national origin of a specific suspect or suspects in the same way they would use specific information regarding height, weight, hair color etc. about specific suspects. 3. No motorist or pedestrian, once cited or warned, will be detained beyond the point where there exists no reasonable suspicion of further criminal activity or other legal or factual basis for detention. No person or vehicle will be searched in the absence of a search or arrest warrant, a legally recognized exception to the warrant requirement, or a person’s voluntary consent. B. Recording Information: 1. Traffic stop procedures will be followed as outlined in PGO 8646. 2. If a member is unsure of the race, color, ethnicity, or gender of a person stopped, the member will not risk offending that individual by asking the person to identify that characteristic, except in an instance in which that characteristic is necessary to the investigation. III. Complaint Procedure: A. A complaint may be filed with the Department if the affected party believes they may have been detained or searched based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation. No person will be discouraged or Bias Free Policing Page 3 of 4 in any way prevented from filing such a complaint, or retaliated against because they have filed a complaint. B. Citizen Complaint: 1. Any citizen desiring to file such a complaint will be provided with a complaint / compliment form [2210-008-A Compliment-Complaint Form]. 2. IV. The report will be taken in accordance with PGO 8282.00. Corrective Action: Whenever it appears that an unlawful practice is occurring either through review or sustained complaints, the results will be sent to the Chief for appropriate corrective/disciplinary action in accordance with PGO 8285.00. V. Administrative Review: A documented review of traffic stop procedures related to fair and impartial policing shall be prepared annually by a designee of the Chief. By Order of: Michael McKinley, Police Chief Bias Free Policing Page 4 of 4