Officer diversity training plan breezes through public safety committee

A plan proffered by law enforcement officials that would change police training to better reflect Minnesota’s diversity and potentially better reflect those demographics within peace officer ranks has been met with open arms.

Sponsored by Rep. Tony Cornish (R-Vernon Center), HF346, as amended, would add peace officer training requirements in crisis intervention and mental illness crisis, conflict management and mediation, and recognizing and valuing community diversity and cultural awareness. It would also provide more funding for training and to help local units of government hire candidates through non-traditional means.

“I do like this idea because it will actually increase the possible candidates to get much better law enforcement candidates out there, although we do have some great law enforcement personnel already,” said Rep. Brian Johnson (R-Cambridge).

Approved Wednesday by the House Public Safety and Security Policy and Finance Committee, the bill’s next stop is the House Ways and Means Committee. A companion, SF445, sponsored by Sen. Warren Limmer (R-Maple Grove), awaits action by the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.

“We did this to address the concerns of many advocacy groups who have been talking to us the last couple of years and law enforcement,” said Cornish, the committee chair.

Minnesota has about 10,700 licensed active peace officers across 437 law enforcement agencies.

Rep. Debra Hilstrom (DFL-Brooklyn Center) is one of 23 bill co-sponsors; 15 are DFLers.

“For the first time, law enforcement has come forward and said, ‘We want you to mandate these kinds of training,’” she said.

Peace officers are required to complete at least 48 hours of continuing education training within a three-year licensing period.

Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts testifies on HF346 during a Feb. 15 hearing in the House Public Safety and Security Policy and Finance Committee. Sponsored by Rep. Tony Cornish, the bill would change the way law enforcement officers are trained. Photo by Paul Battaglia

The bill would require, beginning July 1, 2018, that at least 16 of those hours be in conflict management and mediation, mental illness and crisis response, and valuing community and cultural diversity.

The division of those hours would be determined by a local police chief or sheriff because needs differ in various parts of the state.

Rep. Raymond Dehn (DFL-Mpls) encouraged community engagement be a part of creating any change. “It would show the importance of the community and folks being involved.”

The bill also calls for $1 million in each year of the 2018-19 biennium to fund a so-called “Pathway to Policing” program that would reimburse local units of government that hire and compensate non-traditional candidates.

“Many departments are finding it very difficult to find candidates in terms of quantity, but we’re also finding a particular challenge in finding candidates to help us become more diverse and become more reflective of the communities that we’re serving,” said Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts.

“This program allows cities, agencies to hire a candidate who has at least a two-year degree … and then we would send them to a program that has already been created where we would provide them with the training to learn the theory side of it, also the kind of skills-related training.”

After about 15 weeks of training, a candidate would take a state licensing exam and, if successful, return to the unit of government that hired them for further training.

“Currently, there is really no pathway for those candidates in a career already to cross over without having to go to school full-time and work full-time and a variety of other challenges that make it difficult to do,” Potts said.

Funding changes

The bill calls for about $21.7 million of new General Fund spending in the 2018-19 biennium for the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board. Money from a special revenue fund now financed through a $9.75 surcharge on traffic tickets and dedicated to peace officer training — about $2.8 million last year — would be redirected to the General Fund, meaning the bill would ultimately provide about $16.5 million in new funds for peace officer training.

“It now says the state is going to pay for all law enforcement training straight from the General Fund,” Hilstrom said. “It is a priority for us.”

The current state reimbursement for officer training is $312 annually per officer. The bill would increase that to roughly $1,000, still below what many local agencies now spend.

Of the new money, $10 million annually (minus $33,000 in setup costs in Fiscal Year 2018) would be distributed by the POST Board for peace officer training reimbursements to local governments. An additional $1 million each year would go toward reimbursing local governments that operate pathway to policing programs. Communities could receive up to a 50 percent reimbursement of costs, based on the number of grant applications.