Police Forums Policies and Guidelines | PoliceOne

PoliceOne is the premier law enforcement site on the Internet. With all that PoliceOne has to offer, we are very proud of our forums. The forums are divided into two divisions - Secure and Non-Secure.

What does this mean? PoliceOne is, and always has been, a law enforcement site, whose mission is to provide services and information to the law enforcement community throughout the world. Confirmed law enforcement members of PoliceOne may post messages in any category in the forums, in both the secure and non-secure categories. It is our policy to grant secure access to those who have a justifiable law enforcement need, with the obvious primary group being sworn law enforcement personnel, of which the vast majority of our secure-access base is comprised.

There are, however, special circumstances in which we have granted access--after intense reference checking--to those in special non-sworn capacities, like law enforcement trainers, department legal representatives and certain subject matter experts. In those instances, the true nature of the person's professional need to have access to this information is confirmed with a sworn ranking supervisor, typically a Captain, Lieutenant or higher. We also check with our in-house review board to consider the validity of the request for access as well.

If ANY member is acting inappropriately in the forums or in the chat room, we reserve the right to immediately retract their access to the secured areas of our forums and site and will do so. We look to the active members of the forum to keep us abreast of any situations of concern that may surface. Although the PoliceOne forums are partly open to the public, it is designed to be primarily a law enforcement forum.

PoliceOne also invites the public, or non-law enforcement community, to become members and to participate in the non-secure forums by asking questions of legitimate concern, by posting information that is informative and by contributing expertise from a non-law enforcement perspective.

PoliceOne encourages free speech and the open sharing of thoughts and information. However, there are rules of common sense and civility that we require our members to follow. PoliceOne management maintains the right to remove anything that is deemed thoroughly unprofessional or offensive. Please review and follow the policies below.

1. Respecting other Members

PoliceOne requires that all members who post in the forums respectfully interact with other members in the forum. If you don't agree with someone and feel you have to let them know, then simply say that. There's no need to criticize the person for their views no matter how opposed to them you are. Personal discussion can be taken offline via private messages. It is important that PoliceOne convey a professional environment.

2. Topics

PoliceOne understands that discussion topics may evolve and change over time. However, if you are posting to a specific thread, please try to stay focused on the same topic throughout the life of the thread. If your post is not related to the original topic, please start a new one and reference the URL link to that topic during the discussion.

3. Multiple posts

Generally, we do not recommend posting the same message in multiple forums. It creates some confusion and can lead to the forums becoming more disorganized than they need to be.

4. Deliberate Posting of Offensive or Contentious Messages

Unfortunately, we in the law enforcement community must deal with individuals who are looking to bait or attack us. Posting messages that attack a person's character, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, intelligence or any form of degradation will not be tolerated. Any attacks on the law enforcement profession WILL NOT be allowed under any circumstances.

5. Sexual content and Profanity

While mild joking is OK, threads that are directed towards sex will not be allowed. If a thread gets out of hand it will be locked or deleted. Sexual solicitation or innuendos will not be tolerated. Our forums are also not to be used for romantic purposes. Furthermore, we request that profanity be kept to a minimum.

6. Banning of Members and Removal of Posts

Blatant or frequent violation of the above policy will lead to the banning of that individual from the forums. PoliceOne management maintains the right to remove anything that is deemed thoroughly unprofessional or offensive.

Please Contact PoliceOne.com Member Support to Report any violations of the above policies.