Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Policy And Compliance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Sheriff proposes Lexipol policy contract to centralize and update department policies
Summary
The sheriffs office presented a proposal to contract with Lexipol to review and manage patrol, jail and communications policies, citing ongoing liability and the need for attorney-reviewed, up-to-date policies. The first-year cost would be about $39,000 plus annual subscription fees.
Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald told the Board of Supervisors that his office seeks to subscribe to Lexipol, a commercial policy-management service the sheriff described as providing attorney-reviewed policy updates and an electronic policy platform for deputies.
Fitzgerald and command staff said Lexipol would be used to review, revise and maintain the sheriff's offices policies in a single, accessible system. The sheriff described the service as providing a team of attorneys who track Iowa law, case law and legislative changes and push updates to agencies, and said the model is widely used in other Iowa counties.
The sheriff's office presented a one-time implementation cost of $39,000 for the initial policy conversion and consulting project and an annual subscription fee of $17,000 for patrol and an existing $8,000 jail subscription, which the sheriffs office said would make recurring costs roughly $25,000 a year after implementation.
Command staff said the county's jail policy manual is already on Lexipol and that the new work would bring field services and communications into the same system so officers could access policies electronically in the field, receive updates and sign electronic acknowledgements. The sheriff's office framed the cost as a liability-reduction measure that many comparable counties have adopted.
Supervisors asked about alternatives, including hiring in-house counsel to manage policies; the sheriffs office said retaining a full-time attorney for continuous policy review would be more expensive than the Lexipol subscription for an agency of the county's size.
No formal action or purchase was approved at the Jan. 27 work session. The item was presented for board consideration during the budget process.
