A unanimous vote on Monday by the Missouri Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission decided new standards for police training will be enacted in January 2017. The standards are designed to improve current police tactics and ensure officers are better prepared to handle different situations. The standards specify four areas that officers will be trained in: fair and impartial policing practices, crisis management and critical thinking training, handling persons with mental health issues, and officer well-being. Along with the standards, police will require more yearly training as well.
“This is a 50 percent increase in the yearly training that officers receive already. They are already police officers and this is to maintain their license,” Mike O’Connell, the Communications Director for the Missouri Department of Safety, said.
Police officers currently have to complete 48 hours of continuing education every three years. However, once the new standards are active, officers will have to complete 24 hours of continuing education each year, as well as two hours of training a year in each of the four main areas.
Lane Roberts is the Director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety, and he noted that the standards for Missouri police have not changed in nearly 20 years. Roberts added that the new standards are both reactive of recent events and proactive.
“It’s not exclusively about what has gone on in some of the major cities around the nation. It also has to do with just being responsible,” Roberts said. “And I think that the officers, the law enforcement leaders, the members of the public, that joined into this process, we’re looking at the overall welfare of both our citizens and our officers.”
Roberts said that these new standards will get Missouri caught up with current events, affecting around 15,000 police officers in Missouri.