A local police department under new leadership is overhauling its policies and taking steps to make sure all of its officers brush up on policies and training.
The Greenwood Police Department hired Lexipol, a national company made up of attorneys and experts focused on risk management solutions for local governments, particularly public safety agencies, to help revise, update and upkeep its policy manual.
An overhaul of the department’s policy manual was a top goal of newly appointed Chief Jim Ison, who took the helm at the Greenwood Police Department in August. It is a common practice to review and update police department policies each year, but there has not been a complete revamp since 2012, he said.
Lexipol was brought in because of the organizations high standard of knowledge about public safety, as well as state and national laws, Ison said. The attorneys take the pressure off the chief and the department by making sure every policy is legally correct, and that it is up to date with the best law enforcement practices in the country.
The city will pay the company $15,000 each year to manage ongoing revisions and updates to Greenwood’s police policies.
“We’ve gone through the gold standard in policymaking,” Ison said.
The policies needed an update anyway, but the racial justice movements last year across the country calling for nationwide police reform made Ison want to do a deep dive and review every policy.
“That really pushed law enforcement to take a good look at what we’re doing, updating policies, making sure we are operating in accordance with best practices,” Ison said. “The old way of doing things, writing a policy and that going unchanged for 10 or 15 years, those days are over.”
Ison took it a step further, deciding to use Lexipol’s training programs to create a system to ensure all officers are aware of their required trainings and updated policies on a daily basis.
Once the new policy manual is complete this summer, officers will download an app on their computers and phones that will send “pop-up” policy quizzes daily to test the officer on his or her training. The quizzes will include a policy and scenario that officers will have to answer questions about before starting a shift.
The app will also automatically send updates to officers if a policy is changed, and the officer has to read through it before continuing work.
“It’s a way to document that they understand the policies and are able to apply it,” Ison said.
The Greenwood Police Department and Lexipol are still in the early stages of the policy overhaul project, which began in November. The final policy manual will be completed in July or August, and it will likely have 140 to 160 policies, which is close to what the department has now, he said.
Ison goes through four or five policies a week with a policy writer from Lexipol. He reviews a policy revision from Lexipol, and consults experts in the department about it before sending it back to the attorney with the department’s revisions and suggestions. It’s a team effort.
“This is a very long process,” Ison said. “I bring in specific instructors, based on what the policy is about … if it’s use-of-force, then I bring in the tactics instructor to get his thoughts on it. We’re involving the people who are experts in each field.”
As far as specifics, a few new policies concerning department budgeting and a detailed process for approving gun permits will be added to the manual. Language for use-of-force policies and standards of conduct will be revised, but there will be no major changes beyond what the department already has in place.
Chokeholds were banned last year at the department, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the practice “unless and officer’s life is at risk” in July. This order was a response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who suffocated while a Minneapolis police officer held him on the ground with his knee on his neck.
The order mandated that law enforcement agencies update its chokehold policies to receive federal funding. Chokeholds were never authorized at the Greenwood Police Department to begin with, so the department was not affected greatly by the order, Ison said.
“I think law enforcement around the country are now taking another look at these holds, and when you’re fighting and people are moving, it’s obviously a dynamic situation,” he said. “Officers who don’t train on this hold on a regular basis, when someone is moving, it’s easy to get around their wind pipe the wrong way and thus cutting off their ability to breathe.”
Overhauling all the department’s policies with Lexipol will give Ison peace of mind, knowing Greenwood is up to date with the best law enforcement practices, he said.
“This is going to be a really good thing for our department,” Ison said.
