PARIS — Selectmen on Tuesday authorized police Chief Michael Madden to update the Police Department’s Standard Operating Procedures manual.

The manual is out of date and some policies have not been updated since the 1990s. The six-inch-thick manual addresses everything from the number of buttons on an officer’s uniform to procedures to address an active shooter.

According to Town Manager Amy Bernard, selectmen have customarily approved every change in the manual, which has delayed a comprehensive overhaul.

Every page of the current manual, according to Bernard and Madden, was approved by selectmen, a requirement not extended to other town departments.

It was, however, unclear to Bernard or selectmen when and why compulsory board approval for changes became the norm.

Madden, who requested permission to unilaterally amend the manual according to Maine statute and nationally accredited police standards, said executive authorization for changes was an oddity.

“That is not a practice I’ve seen anywhere, either locally in Maine or across the nation,” Madden said. “It would take a long time to do that, if you have to look at every rule and regulation.”

Rather than go through the procedure of seeking Board of Selectmen authorization, former police chiefs have instead issued policy memos, which could leave the department vulnerable in possible litigation.

“There needs to be an overhaul of this book,” Madden said. “But we need to be able to do it without seeking board authorization on every single change.”

According to Jack Richardson, chairman of the town’s Policy and Procedure Committee, board approval for standard-operating-procedure changes was initiated when the committee updated the manual early last decade.

Richardson said then-Town Manager Steve McAllister, a former police officer, decided the selectmen should review and authorize the changes made by the committee.

Board members agreed that the process appeared cumbersome and unanimously voted to give Madden the authority to pursue the updates.

Madden said the scope of the overhaul meant it would not be completed for at least a year. More pressing issues, such as handling DNA evidence, will be updated first, he said.

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