Northfield Police Policy Manual Available Online

Press release from the City of Northfield:

May 10, 2021

In April 2020, the Northfield Police Department (NPD) began the process of implementing a new Police Department policy manual. The department partnered with Lexipol to provide up to date, legally researched and best practices policies. NPD then completed a review of each policy, making adjustments to meet the needs and expectations of our community. Internal and external stakeholders assisted in the review, including a community policy review task force comprised of 13 community members and led by Mayor Pownell. The result has been 158 policies to help guide the officers in providing public safety services to the Northfield community.

In May, the police department posted these policies on the police department page of the City of Northfield website, where they are now available to the public. We feel this assists the police department in providing transparency in our operating principals and accountability to our community members. This effort also assists the department in modernizing our operations and brings us closer to meeting the recommendations in the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing report and the State Of Minnesota Working Group On Police-Involved Deadly Force Encounters report. Police Chief Mark Elliott believes both of these reports provide well researched and community supported guidelines in the delivery of public safety services based on community partnerships.

The policy manual is a living document and adjustments will be made on a regular basis as changes in state and federal statutes, POST Board rules, and case law mandate changes. Department capabilities, technology, and capacity, as well as community expectations are also drivers of policy changes.

The policy manual is available on the City of Northfield website:

View the policy manual

This press release was produced by the City of Northfield. The views expressed here are the author’s own.