Revise Peace Officer Continuing Education Requirements

Summary

State law requires that peace officers receive 20 hours of continuing education every two years on the same eight topics. This training is redundant and costly. State law should be amended to reduce the number of required training hours on mandated topics from 20 to 10 hours every two years. This would allow local police departments to spend the remaining training hours on the unique needs of their communities.

Background

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education (TCLEOSE) is responsible for licensing and training Texas law enforcement and corrections personnel. TCLEOSE accomplishes this mission by developing and overseeing courses for preparatory officer training and continuing education. As of September 1, 2000, peace officers must meet TCLEOSE training standards to maintain their licenses.[1] TCLEOSE implemented this change because many peace officers were not completing the mandatory continuing education requirements.

State, county, and municipal police forces must provide each peace officer with 40 hours of continuing education every two years. State law requires that 20 of these hours be devoted to eight topics: civil rights, racial sensitivity, cultural diversity, child abuse, child neglect, family violence, sexual assault, and sex offender characteristics.[2] Most police forces also cover these topics at police academies during basic training.

A peace officer appointed to a first supervisory position must receive an additional 20 hours of supervisory training every two years. This additional training must address the eight mandatory topics as well as subjects such as communication, leadership styles, and planning.

Texas cities, counties, and the state employ about 58,000 active licensed peace officers.[3] Large police forces, such as the ones in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston perform training and continuing education for more than 90 percent of their peace officers themselves. Members of these police forces generally feel that the need to cover redundant information about the eight required topics during every two-year training period is ineffective and costly. Instead, this time would be better spent addressing topics specific to the needs of their individual communities.[4]

Recommendations

State law related to continuing education for peace officers should be amended to reduce the number of hours required for mandated training topics from 20 hours to 10 hours every two years.

Peace officers should continue to receive 40 hours of continuing education every two years, but the requirement of 20 training hours every two years devoted to eight specific topics should be reduced to 10 hours.

State law related to peace officer basic training should be amended to add a requirement that the mandated topics be covered.

To ensure that peace officers still receive comprehensive information on the eight mandated topics, state law should require training on the eight topics in basic officer training. Present state law only requires training on these specific topics as part of continuing education every two years.

Fiscal Impact

This recommendation would have no fiscal impact. This change will provide local police departments, as well as county and state agencies that employ peace officers, with 10 additional training hours every two years to train officers on community- and assignment-specific issues. Local police departments and state and county agencies that exceed the 40-hour continuing education requirement could cut training costs by reducing the number of hours spent covering mandated topics.

[1] V.T.C.A, Occupations Code, Part II, Chapter 601, §170.351 (a).

[2] V.T.C.A, Occupations Code, Part II, Chapter 601, §170.351 (b).

[3] Telephone interview with Charles Barrett, Investigator, Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, May 16, 2000.

[4] Telephone interview with Steve Otto, Director of Training, Dallas Police Department, May 18, 2000.

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