Committee approves uniform crowd-control policy from POST with technical corrections

The Legislative Regulation Review Committee on Oct. 28 approved proposed regulation 2025-015a from the Police Officer Standards and Training Council (POST), adopting a uniform crowd control and management policy with technical corrections.

Con Milne, assistant legal director at the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, represented the department and POST and said the rule responds to the police accountability statute that asked POST to promulgate consistent guidance for law enforcement statewide. "Previous, there was no uniform policy for crowd control. It was up to the individual law enforcement units," Milne said, describing the regulation as a model policy that uses incident-command principles while preserving on-scene commanders' discretion.

Committee members asked how the policy would treat largely peaceful protests that include elements of criminal activity and whether commanders would have authority to distinguish between peaceful and nonpeaceful crowds. Milne said the incident commander makes that initial assessment and the regulation provides an outline of expectations while allowing flexibility to address differing circumstances in buildings, street takeovers, marches, or large neutral events such as concerts. The agency also explained that if a unit deviates from the model policy, commanders and delegated officers would be expected to document those decisions in incident reports.

Several members noted the policy took multiple years to complete, citing staff turnover and the COVID-19 pandemic as contributing factors, and urged a faster timeline for other pending POST rules (for example, pursuit policy updates). The committee voted to accept the LCO recommendation of approval in whole with technical corrections; a roll call recorded affirmative votes from a majority of members present.