LPD civil disturbance policy

Chief, I was wondering, does the Littleton Police Department have clearly defined rules of engagement in the event of civil unrest? I would expect that it would assess a first priority of preventing any personal-on-person violence, and second, any damage to property.

Littleton Police Chief Doug StephensChief Douglas Stephens: You read our policy. But we have a standard operating procedure that covers, again, keeping in mind that these things are very fluid, that they change, rapidly evolving situations. So no single policy or practice can really cover every scenario, but you’re right. Basically, our first priority is protection of life followed by the protection of property, right? So we want to always keep everyone safe and then assess the situation, and based on whatever is happening around us will dictate what tactics we’re using. But we are trained, and we do have policies and procedures, including our use of force policy, and we do have a civil unrest policy that dictate how we respond to those situations.