Equitable and Fair Policing Practices

For many years, the Parker Police Department has championed a progressive set of policies and practices that has resulted in us becoming a leader in 21st Century policing, both regionally and nationally. Many organizations reach out to the Parker Police Department for guidance on how to do things right. We are accredited with excellence through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).

Because we have been working as an organization to help create positive change in policing, we adopted and have followed the below practices for many years.

• The Parker Police Department’s policies and training do not contain or authorize the use of any type of chokeholds or neck restraints and they are considered excessive force.
• Officers are required to turn on body-worn cameras at the beginning of investigative or enforcement contacts. In fact, our policy has been commended by the American Civil Liberties Union and Upturn for being fair and equitable in protecting civil rights and liberties and called the best in the country.
• We have a policy Prohibiting Bias Based Policing and we collect the data to monitor our practices. We document all traffic contacts, not just traffic tickets, to insure we have the data to identify issues with unfair or discriminatory police contacts.
• Publicly viewable reports including: Annual Summary of Complaints, Bias Based Profiling Report, Early Intervention and Evaluation Report, Internal Affairs Annual Statistical Summary and Use of Force Report.

There are five focus points that help us ensure we are treating everyone we come in contact with fairly and equitably and create public accountability.

1. Policies
   • The Parker Police Department’s policies are designed to create equitable and fair treatment of every individual we interact with. Every Officer is required to read all policies and sign them stating they understand and will follow them. All of our policies are reviewed regularly and changes are made when best practices are updated and advanced.
2. CALEA Accreditation 
   • The purpose of CALEA’s Accreditation Program is to improve the delivery of public safety services. This will be done primarily by maintaining a body of standards developed by public safety practitioners covering a wide range of up-to-date public safety initiatives, establishing and administering an accreditation process, and recognizing professional excellence.
3. Citizen Oversight
   • The Parker Police Department works closely with a 501(c)3 non-profit Citizen’s Advisory Group: C.O.P.P.S. (Citizen’s Offering Parker Police Support).
4. Publicly Viewable Reports
   • The Parker Police Department commits to working continually to earn the confidence of the citizens and visitors to Parker through transparency of reports and policies. This transparency allows residents to gain a better understanding of what we do, how we do it and why. This knowledge gives residents the ability to support our department and policies and also make suggestions for changes.
5. Training
   • The Parker Police Department is a leader in the number of hours we train our Officers and civilian staff, which is a foundational reason why our Officers are among the most professional, educated, fair and equitable you will find. Our Officers receive specific training regarding Anti-Bias Policing, Ethics and extensive training on National Best-Practice Use-of_force Continuum policies.

The Parker Police Department understands and agrees that policing in America requires change. It is important to note that the Parker Police Department has been working hard not only to achieve this change locally but also to inspire other agencies. Our staff has hosted webinars, speaking engagements throughout the country, and international telephone conferences to help Law Enforcement move towards a more professional and legitimate profession.