ATTENTION ALL POLICE AGENCIES THAT RECEIVE FEDERAL GRANTS

Every police agency in the United States that receives federal discretionary grant funding, about 18,000 of them, are required to comply with Executive Order 13929. This article outlines how California has opted to address this, please check with your states Attorney General if outside of California. For those California law enforcement agencies wishing to be placed on the USDOJ list for potential future discretionary grant funding shall submit attestation letters to POST by January 31, 2021 pursuant to President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order 13929 on Safe Policing for Safe Communities. All state, county, and local law enforcement agencies desiring to apply for U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) discretionary grant funds must now adhere in advance to the following two standards:

1. “Adherence to applicable laws: The applying agency maintains use of force policies that adhere to all applicable federal, state and local laws; and

2. Prohibition of carotid restraints (choke holds): The applying agency maintains use of force policies that prohibit the use of carotid restraints, except in situations where the use of deadly force is allowed by law.”

The order states in part that state and local law enforcement agencies must constantly assess and improve their practices and policies to ensure transparent, safe, and accountable delivery of law enforcement services to their communities.  Credentialing bodies can accelerate these assessments, enhance citizen confidence in law enforcement practices, and allow for the identification and correction of internal deficiencies before those deficiencies result in injury to the public or to law enforcement officers. The USDOJ designated the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) as the “credentialing” body in California for the two standards noted above. Credentialing bodies have the option to independently review law enforcement agency policies for adherence to the two standards, or to accept an attestation letter from the head of the agency confirming compliance. POST will not review agency policies and will only accept attestation letters to satisfy the compliance requirement.

POST has created a Webpage containing the information related to the USDOJ Safe Policing for Safe Communities Certification – Executive Order 13929. See site at https://post.ca.gov/Safe-Policing-Certification ALL LETTERS WILL BE UPLOADED TO THIS WEBPAGE, please do not mail letters to POST. The website also contains a sample attestation letter tailored to California law enforcement agencies. The website should be used by California law enforcement agencies for uploading attestation letters. The letter will confirm and serve as an attestation that, to the best of your agencies knowledge, your agency meets the use of force eligibility requirements set forth by the U.S. Department of Justice for discretionary federal grants. With this confirmation letter, your agency respectfully requests certifying compliance with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Standards for Certification on Use of Force and Safe Policing for Communities. See sample letter at: https://post.ca.gov/Portals/0/post_docs/Safe_Policing_Sample_Letter.pdf

Once the letter has been uploaded into the POST website, a confirmation email will be sent to the individual submitter, as well as to the agency head. Please contact me with any questions you may have, or you can submit them via email to the Safe Policing Certification.

See the order at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-safe-policing-safe-communities/

The USDOJ has published a FAQ listing the details and requirements for this new process. See FAQ sheet at https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/executive_order/Fact_Sheet.pdf