Policy Text
Policy
341Fremont Police Department
Major Incident Notification
341.1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE
The Fremont Police Department recognizes that certain incidents should be brought to the
attention of City of Fremont senior leadership, City Council, police administration and supervisors
to facilitate the coordination of activities and ensure that inquiries from the media and the public
may be properly addressed.
The purpose of this directive is to establish guidelines for notification of the Chief of Police, Deputy
Chief, Police Captains, Police Lieutenants, Professional Police Managers, City Manager, City
Department Heads and City Council members, during significant or major incidents as described
in this policy.
341.1.1 NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE
The on-duty Watch Commander or Incident Commander is responsible for ensuring proper
notifications are made. The Watch Commander may delegate the notification to a Police
Lieutenant, a Sergeant or Public Information Officer (PIO).Notification to Police Command Staff
shall be made as soon as possible.Notification to the City Manager, City Council and members
of the City's Leadership Team shall be made once the situation has sufficiently stabilized and
appropriate factual information can be provided.This notification should occur prior to a community
notification or press release being issued, when possible. It will be at the Watch Commander's
discretion to notify the Chief of Police, Deputy Chief, and/ or Division Commander(s) personally
by telephone.
All information contained in an email notification to the City Council and Manager is subject to
public disclosure.
(a)Notification Groups: The Police Public Affairs Manager, or designee, shall maintain
and review notification messaging groups in the City email address book on a quarterly
basis to ensure accuracy and make any necessary changes. Two primary police
notification groups to be used for major incident notifications are as follows:
1.Police Command Staff - Police administration shall be notified by email and
text notification unless specifically noted below.The email should include a brief
description of the incident, status of the incident, media involvement, and a
contact number for additional information. A text message notifying staff to check
their email shall be sent to the notification group "PDCommandTextNotification"
once the email is prepared and delivered.The email shall be sent to the
"PDCommandEmailNotification" group in the city e-mail address book.
2.Council/PD Command Staff - The City Council, City Manager, and Police
Administration shall be notified via email. The email should include a brief
description of the incident, status of the incident, media involvement, and a
contact for additional information. The email shall be sent to the following
notification group "Council_PDCommand Email" (includes PD Command staff)
in the city e-mail address book.
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3.Follow-up emails shall be considered to provide additional details of significant
occurrences related to the initial notification.
341.1.2 NOTIFICATION ALERTS
(a)Council/PD Command Staff notifications shall be completed in the following significant
incidents whenever the on-duty Watch Commander believes management personnel
should be notified, unless otherwise directed by the Chief of Police, Deputy Chief, and/
or Division Commander:
1.Homicides and attempted homicides with GBI (great bodily injury).
2.In-custody deaths
3.Actual or imminent potential riots or civil disturbances in the City of Fremont.
4.Any purposeful discharge of a firearm at a person by a Law Enforcement Officer
within the City of Fremont and/or by a Fremont Police Officer.
5.Fatal traffic collisions.
6.Serious injury traffic collisions involving police vehicles or on-duty police
employees.
7.Emergencies involving hostages and/or armed barricaded suspects.
8.Location of bomb situations where a device has actually been located.
9.Any major collisions or incidents involving buses, trains, or airplanes.
10.Any mass casualty incident of any kind.
11.Activation of the Amber Alert System by the Fremont Police Department.
12.Serious incidents involving dangerous wildlife (mountain lion, alligator, etc.).
13.Any emergency requiring the evacuation of a large number of citizens.
14.Any situation involving School lockdowns.
15.Any other incident as directed by the Chief of Police or designee.
(b)PD/Command Staff Only
1.Activation of the SWAT Team (email only).
2.Deployment of police staff under mutual aid.
3.Serious incidents, resulting in the emergency suspension of department
personnel (only the Chief of Police, Deputy Chief, Police Captains, City
Manager, and division/unit manager if affected, shall be notified of this situation).
4.Bomb threat or investigation (email only).
5.Any prolonged road closure or neighborhood lockdown, due to police activity
(email only).
6.Any discharge of a firearm by a citizen at a Fremont Police employee.
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7.Outside agency requests involving a significant deployment of City resources
outside the City of Fremont.
8.Significant injury to an employee on or off-duty (email only).
9.Use of a tranquilizer by an Animal Services Officer (email only).
10.Any discharge of a firearm at an animal (email only).
11.Any major incident of concern, requiring awareness.
341.2 MINIMUM CRITERIA FOR NOTIFICATION
Most situations where the media show a strong interest are also of interest to the Chief of Police
and the affected Division Commander. The following list of incident types is provided as a guide
for notification and is not intended to be all inclusive:
•Homicides
•Traffic accidents with fatalities