Lexipol

Lexipol LLC is a private company based in California that provides policy manuals, training bulletins, and consulting services to law enforcement agencies, fire departments, and other public safety departments.[1] In 2019, 3500 agencies in 35 U.S. states used Lexipol manuals or subscribed to their services.[6] Lexipol states that it services 8,100 agencies as of March 2020.[7] Lexipol retains copyright over all manuals that they create, even those modified by local agencies, but does not take on the status of policymaker. Critics note that a decision made by Lexipol becomes policy in thousands of agencies and that there is little transparency into how the policy decisions are made.[1]

Lexipol LLC
Private
Industry
Founded2003 (2003) in California[1]
Founders
  • Bruce Praet
  • Gordon Graham
  • Dan Merkle
[1]
Headquarters
Key people
Richard DeFrancisco (CEO)[4]
Productspolicy manuals, daily training bulletins, consulting and implementation services[2]
OwnerThe Riverside Company
Number of employees
200+[5]
Websitelexipol.com, policeone.com, ems1.com, correctionsone.com

Founding

Bruce Praet, a California attorney and former law enforcement officer, began Lexipol in 2003 with Gordon Graham, a former law enforcement officer and law school graduate, and Dan Merkle, a corporate executive who became Lexipol's first Chairman and CEO. As a partner in the law firm of Ferguson, Praet and Sherman, Praet had worked with the Fullerton, California police department to create a California law enforcement manual, which he then used as a model to create a policy manual for the Escalon, California police department. As the number of manuals being supported grew, Praet set up Lexipol and transferred the policy development work to his new company.[1] In May 2020, Richard DeFrancisco was appointed CEO.[4]

Expansion

Marketing its products and services to law enforcement agencies and to municipal liability insurers, Lexipol's focus is on reducing liability risks and avoiding litigation.[1][8] From 40 California agencies in 2003, Lexipol's business has expanded to 3500 agencies in 35 states in 2019, including police, sheriff, fire department, and other public safety agencies, making it the dominant private provider in the market.[6][9] More than 90 percent of law enforcement agencies in California are Lexipol clients.[5] Graham said the Lexipol concept became successful when police liability insurers became interested.[10] Initially creating law enforcement manuals, Lexipol added policy manuals and subscriptions for fire departments; the Minnesota State Fire Chiefs Association endorsed a Minnesota Fire Policy Manual from Lexipro in 2014.[11]

Orange County Business Journal ranked Lexipol the 24th fastest-growing private company in Orange County in 2010,[12] and Deloitte ranked it 387 on its list of Technology Fast 500 in 2012.[13]

The Riverside Company, a private equity firm, purchased Lexipol in 2014.[14] In 2019, Lexipol merged with Praetorian Digital.[15][16]

Services

Lexipol offers policy manuals with an updating service, daily training bulletins, and implementation services.[1] Although officer participation in the training component is verifiable,[10] the daily training bulletins were not certified by California's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training "as sufficient to satisfy their minimum standards for state law enforcement training".[1] Lexipol's services are widely used by small- and medium-sized departments that lack the resources to create or update their own policy manuals.[1][17] Departments see Lexipol as a mean of mitigating risk.[18][19]

The policy manuals provided by Lexipol can be customized by the contracting agency, however subscribers are advised that the regular updates provided by the company will overwrite any customizations.[1]

Lexipol holds the copyright to all policies, even those modified or amended by the contracting agency, and Lexipol requires contracting agencies to sign an indemnification clause, stating "We only suggest content". Lexipol's contracts state that Lexipol is not the policymaker. The City and County of San Francisco Sheriff's Department retained Lexipol to consult on a new use of force policy, but ended the deal on advice from San Francisco City Attorney's Office which told Lexipol, "Lexipol's ownership of copyrighted material and related derivative works language was unacceptable."[1]

Through its PoliceOne Academy, Lexipol offers online training courses, certified by the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement.[20]

Criticism

UCLA law professors Ingrid Eagly and Joanna Schwartz, in a study published in Texas Law Review, note that scholars and experts "have viewed police policies as a tool to constrain officer discretion and to improve officer decision making. Lexipol, in contrast, promotes its policies as a risk management tool that can reduce legal liability."[17] They identify the lack of transparency in the decision-making process and development of policies as a major concern as local jurisictions get little information on why decisions were made, what evidence was considered in drafting them, or what plausible alternatives might be.[1] A journalist for The Desert Sun states "While Lexipol can boost small departments' confidence that their policies are effective, working with a private company poses challenges to transparency in policymaking."[18]

The study by Eagly and Schwartz also calls out the danger of "mass standardization of police policies across jurisdictions and less opportunity to assess the efficacy of different approaches". Because of the wide adoption of Lexipol manuals, "policy decisions [by Lexipol] have an oversized influence on American policing."[1] Policy and data analyst Samuel Sinyangwe observes that any decision made by Lexipol then becomes policy in thousands of agencies.[6] Scott Morris writes in The Appeal, "a large portion of American police policy is now being drafted by a little-known private company with no public oversight" and quotes Andrea Pritchard, a police review commissioner and the founder of Berkeley Copwatch, saying the Lexipol policies are "designed for maximum protection against civil liability. It’s not maximum protection of civil rights." Morris also notes that Lexipol responded to the model policy on use of force produced by eleven law enforcement organizations, National Consensus Policy on Use of Force, by recommending that its clients make no changes to Lexipol's policies.[5] In a report on fatal shootings by police in Citrus Heights, California which uses Lexipol policies, reporters stated that federally recognized use-of-force expert Ed Obayashi said "off-the-shelf" policies may be legally sound but not reflect community values or expectations.[21]

In 2017, ACLU of California sent a letter to Lexipol demanding changes in some of its policies that the ACLU states "can lead to racial profiling and harassment of immigrants", identifying several examples of unclear or misleading language.[22] The Los Angeles Times reported that even sanctuary cities are using Lexipol policy manuals that contain guidance on immigration enforcement, including language to consider lack of English proficiency as a possible criterion, although some departments removed that language.[23]

In 2018, Spokane settled a lawsuit for unlawful detention. According to the letter sent to Washington agencies by ACLU of Washington and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, "Spokane’s Lexipol policy incorrectly authorized officers to seize individuals and extend detentions for purposes of investigating and aiding in potential civil immigration enforcement, unnecessarily exposing the City to liability".[24]

After a white South Bend, Indiana police officer shot and killed Eric Logan, an African-American man, in June 2019, then-mayor Pete Buttigieg was drawn from his presidential campaign to focus on the emerging public reaction. Body cameras were not turned on during Logan's death, based on South Bend's Lexipol policy manual.[17] In an interview, Samuel Sinyangwe, a policy and data analyst focused on police reform, said "There were some shortcuts taken by the city of South Bend to write their policy that many cities across the country are taking but that, frankly, are not consistent with a commitment to ending police violence. What they did was they decided to contract with a private corporation called Lexipol to write the policy for them. Lexipol is a company that makes money selling policies to police departments." Bill McAuliffe, speaking for Lexipol, said "The whole philosophy of Lexipol policy content is we give them a solid foundation of well-written, legally researched and vetted policy. And then the agency needs to take it the next step and customize it to make sure that it's applicable, practical and functional for their organization's purposes."[6]

Although agencies can customize the boilerplate manual that they receive, HuffPost says "Lexipol has a reputation for pushing back against stricter policing standards in its manuals, whether around body cameras or when it’s appropriate for officers to use force."[17] Meeting notes from the Tawas City, Michigan Police Authority Board on its implementation of the Lexipol policy quote the Chief of Police telling the Board, "it’s legally defensible, so we don’t want to change much" and that though the Authority Board can have input, Lexipol advised against any Authority Board member having editing abilities.[25]

Several departments in Ohio are rewriting their Lexipol policies in order to meet the certification standards of the Ohio Collaborative.[26]

Madison Pauly, writing in Mother Jones, states that Lexipol founder Praet alluded to working with members of the California legislature on the California Act to Save Lives and quotes Praet as saying "We—law enforcement—got 95 percent of what we needed out of [the bill],”[27]

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See also

References
  1. Eagly, Ingrid V.; Schwartz, Joanna C (2018-04-05). "Lexipol". Texas Law Review. 96 (5). Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  2. "Lexipol LLC". Bloomberg.
  3. "Learn About Us". Lexipol.
  4. "Lexipol introduces new Chief Executive Officer". PoliceOne. May 21, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  5. Morris, Scott (February 13, 2019). "Police Policy for Sale". The Appeal. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  6. Jamal Andress. "A Growing Number Of Police Departments Are Outsourcing Their Policies". Newsy. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  7. Lexipol (2020-03-06). "Lexipol and PowerDMS Announce Integration Partnership to Streamline Public Safety Risk Management and Compliance". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  8. Morris, Scott. "The Private Company Shaping American Police Policy". CityLab. Retrieved 2020-06-07.
  9. Bergman, Paul (2018-12-01). Criminal Law: A Desk Reference. Nolo. ISBN 978-1-4133-2577-5.
  10. Harvard Law Review: Volume 130, Number 6 - April 2017. Quid Pro Books. 2017-04-10. ISBN 978-1-61027-784-6.
  11. Mund, Bill (2014-09-02). "Welcome to St. Cloud for the 2014 Minnesota State Fire Chiefs Association Annual Conference". Minnesota Fire Chief: 4. At this year’s conference we will also be officially launching a new partner program with Lexipol. Lexipol has created a Minnesota Fire Service Policy Manual that will be available to our membership at a greatly reduced price. The MSFCA has endorsed this product and there is already information available for you to check it out. The program includes customizable policies and online training documentation for your department. In short you will be able to create a department policy manual for your department and document that you have also trained your staff to the policy.
  12. Lyster, Michael (2010-10-25). "Fast-Growing Privates: $12B in Sales, Growth of 23%". Orange County Business Journal. 33 (43): 2.
  13. "Lexipol Is Proud to be Selected as a Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Award Winner for 2012". November 14, 2012.
  14. "Riverside Trains Its Eyes On Lexipol". Riverside. August 22, 2014.
  15. "Riverside expands public safety offering with Lexipol add-on". Smart Business Dealmakers. 2019-02-07. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  16. Lexipol (2019-02-08). "Lexipol and Praetorian Digital Merge, Creating Comprehensive Content, Training and Policy Platform for Public Safety". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  17. Golshan, Tara (2020-02-21). "The For-Profit Contractor Behind Troubled Policing In Pete Buttigieg's South Bend". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  18. Damien, Christopher (June 23, 2019). "Police warned phones can be evidence". The Desert Sun. pp. 1, 10–11. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  19. Herald, MARK SHENEFELT Special to the Daily. "State unveils new prison and jail inspection standards, but the old sheriffs' rules also live on". Daily Herald. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  20. Yu, Chris. "McCracken County sheriff opts for online professional development in response to pandemic". WPSD Local 6. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  21. Chabria, Anita; Hubert, Cynthia; Reese, Phillip (March 13, 2017). "Citrus Heights has top rate of fatal shootings by police". Sacramento Bee.
  22. "ACLU Demands Change to Unlawful Pre-Packaged Police Policies | ACLU of Northern CA". www.aclunc.org. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  23. Queally, James (April 13, 2017). "Police manuals under scrutiny on immigration". The Los Angeles Times. p. A1, A10. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  24. "Faulty Lexipol Policies Expose Police Departments to Costly Lawsuits, ACLU-WA and NWIRP Warn in Letter to Law Enforcement Agencies Statewide". ACLU. January 23, 2018.
  25. Haglund, Jenny. "Evaluation of chief among topics at latest TPA Board meeting". Iosco County News Herald. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  26. Griffin, Dan (2020-06-10). "Local law enforcement agencies 'non-certified' by Ohio Collaborative in state report". WLWT. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  27. Pauly, Madison. "Meet the company that writes the policies that protect cops". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
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