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POLICE DEPARTMENT MANUAL COMMITTEE
Meeting Date 2/8/77
Time 7 30 PM
Place Cary Hall
Members Present Kent, Keith, Mabee, Hays , Corr, Cella, Chapin
Also Present 4 members of the public and Steve Politi from the
Lexington Minuteman
We reviewed the general steps that were to be taken as outlined in
the minutes of 11/30/76 These were followed except that Chief Corr
will present the modifications and will not send out any completely
revised copies of the MPI monographs prior to the public meetings
Chief Corr has met twice with MPI and they are working on Parts 1 and
2 of the manual MPI recommends that any changes in the Policies and
Procedures sections be inserted in the manual as an addenda rather
than to rewrite the monographs , since these monographs have already
been distributed to some 260 towns Corr further spelled out that
the biographical information is available as to the original parti-
cipants in developing the MPI monographs from which we are working
The remainder of the meeting was taken up in the discussions of the
monographs as follows
1 Auto Theft Investigation This was approved as originally
submitted by MPI
2 Breaking and Entering Investigation The department suggests
that a procedure also include the checking with occupants of
surrounding houses as a source for additional inform. tion
After discussions , it was felt that this was already covered
by Section 16 and 17 and that no additional addenda would be
necessary Under Item 12 of the Procedure, is a recommendation
by the Chief that the word "Chief" be deleted so it would read
"notify officer in charge "
There was considerable discussion about burglar alarms, false
alarms, and the development of procedures thereto; further
discussion about whether there should be a town by-law govern-
ing the installation of and response to burglar alarms After
considerable discussion it was agreed that we adopt a Policy
and Procedure monograph as is , with the proviso that we defer
a final decision as to whether or not to suggest an addenda to
the monograph in relation to burglar alarms/false alarms and
responses thereto
3 Dead Bodies There was a suggestion by the department that some
authority be given to the officer in charge to remove a body in
the event the medical examiner cannot be contacted After dis-
cussion, it was felt that this could not be put into any Policy
and Procedure section, since policies and procedures are generally
governed by statute The monograph was approved as is
n
1
4 Handling the Mentally Ill In a general discussion there were
suggestions of some word changes , but these were not considered
to be of sufficient import to put into a separate addenda It
was requested that a statement be made in the Procedure regarding
"presumption of sanity" and there seemed to be general agreement
the monograph went about as far as it could in its present form
Under Section 7b, Hays proposed the additions of the words ,
"by his behavior" but this change was rejected on a vote of
Yes - 3; No - 4
A member from the public in attendance raised a question under
Section 2c " with a female" suggesting that there should
be no differentiation After discussion, there seemed to be
general agreement that this is not only a courtesy, but still
necessary in the world in which we live The monograph was
approved in its present form unanimously
5 Stop & Frisk There were no further comments from the Department, j
and after a short discussion, this monograph was approved
unanimously
The next meeting is on Tuesday, February 22, 1977, 7 30 PM in Cary
most probably in Estabrook Hall The monographs to be discussed at
that time are
6 Emergency Calls
9 Traffic Accidents
10 Transporting Prisoners
11 Search and Seizure
12 Strikes and Labor Disputes
Meeting adjourned 10 05 PM
Resp-ctfully sub ted,
car
H M Chapin