Background
According to CLER’s 2009 national census of RLEOs, there are 71,676 RLEOs serving throughout the United States and its territories. Typical RLEOs volunteer 300 hours yearly, providing more than 2 million man-hours of highly skilled volunteer support at little to no cost to their communities. CLER notes that RLEOs volunteering between 500 and 1,000 hours annually are not uncommon, and for many small – and especially rural – agencies, RLEOs are the majority presence, with full-time LEOs providing the core management, administrative, and training cadre. RLEOs respond to agency call-outs, to regional crises when manpower surges are required, and back-fill positions as required by their agencies.
The genesis of this position paper is found in the reality that modern American lifestyles involve frequent job changes and interstate moves. For certified and sworn RLEOs, moving to a new state invalidates ALL of their previous training and experience. Valuable expertise is lost that could be put to use in their new communities. To continue their law enforcement service, RLEOs must totally re-complete all basic law enforcement training. During a 20-30 year reserve career, this could involve 2-3 academies, and between 1000 and 2000 hours of basic training – much of it redundant.
CLER finds that in general, there are three types of individuals that enter reserve training. About 25% are young candidates using reserve programs as a stepping stone to a full time, paid, law enforcement career. Both the RLEO and their agency benefit by qualifying the aspirant, giving them experience and exposure to the agency, to ensure that the final hiring decision is good for all parties. This is a win-win situation. About another 25% represent former full-time LEOs who have moved on into non-law enforcement careers – or retired – but want to remain available to their agencies. Reserve programs provide an inexpensive way to retain this valuable, experienced talent.
The largest – and most interesting group – are more mature individuals who have ongoing professions or businesses, but have always wanted to be law enforcement officers as well. Stable in their jobs, and grounded in their communities, they make ideal officers who are donating their time and serving for all of the right reasons.
This benefits both the agency and community, and brings unusual and useful skills into agencies as well as a police presence into many neighborhoods where a police officer may otherwise not be part of the social fabric. In many agencies, it is these RLEOs who provide tremendous institutional knowledge as they are truly homesteaded in their communities (and agencies).
Facts
1. Most professions that require licensing give full, or at least partial, credit for prior certification and experience.
2. Full-time career LEOs are typically given full or partial equivalency when moving into new law enforcement jobs in different states.
3. ALL law enforcement academic training today incorporates mandated federal requirements: Miranda, US Supreme Court decisions and other legal topics; FEMA IS-100, 200 and 700 courses; and Standard Field Sobriety Testing are examples.
4. Many of the topics featured in basic academy training are inherently identical: patrol tactics, mental health, use of force, interview techniques, basics of report writing, safe vehicle operating principles, and officer safety are some of the topics that are commonly taught to the same standards.
5. National policy promotes interoperability of all public safety resources as a critical component of national disaster and critical incident response.
6. National policy promotes volunteerism, and the use of volunteers.
7. Budgets at all levels are increasingly constrained, limiting the number of paid LEO positions, as well as availability of overtime. Having RLEOs to fill critical gaps, and provide an operational surge capability, will prove crucial to meeting the public’s reasonable expectations for law enforcement services.
8. Many RLEOs, especially in small agencies, provide all of their own equipment, saving their agencies and local taxpayers significant expenditures. By volunteering their time, these savings continue to accrue. What is not accrued by the jurisdiction are long term liabilities: RLEOs don’t accrue sick or vacation time, overtime, health benefits, or pensions.
The benefits in 6,7 and 8 (above) are directly impacted by the first five facts listed. CLER believes that the only rational, consistent instrument for addressing these facts is a federally sponsored training block that would provide a transferable credential for RLEOs, allow them to avoid unnecessarily repeating basic training blocks in which they’ve already qualified.
Today, in most states, training requirements for RLEO certification are growing, and volunteer RLEOs are expected to meet the same professional standards as career law enforcement officers. The critical training required for incoming officers should focus on state-specific requirements, as well as on the gaining agency’s requirements, policies, and processes. Anecdotal information from a 2006 FBI Magazine article identified 400,000 RLEOs nationwide. CLER’s 2009 census found only 71,676: an 80% decline. CLER believes that 600-hour plus local training requirements for RLEOs have directly contributed to this precipitous decline in available reserve officers.
Recommendation
CLER recommends that the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, through its turn-key resources, federal mandate, and national reach, should serve as the focal point for providing a basic reserve law enforcement officer certification. CLER pledges its support to assist FLETC in further defining this requirement.
CLER will be holding a series of roundtables, as well as soliciting recommendations from its members and from reserve programs across the nation, to help define a national syllabus.
Our goal is to have available an on-site portal that law enforcement agency-sponsored candidates can register with, and logon, to. This site, similar to FEMA’s on-line training, or to the military’s various on-line institutes, would provide a series of short courses that together would represent the requirements for a federally-issued basic RLEO certification.
The certification training process would serve two purposes. For entering candidates, the credential would exempt – or even negate – the need for a significant amount of in-class training that covers federal requirements and national standards. For certified RLEOs, national certification training would provide a valuable, useful and relevant form of continuing education: most states already require RLEOs to complete continuing education on an annual or bi-annual basis.
As on-line training, the student would be able to work at a pace that fits their work schedule, family requirements, and personal lifestyle. There should be an upper limit for completion, such as one year, after which students would have to re-enroll, again, with approval of their sponsoring agency. This would also serve to prove that they officially remain candidates with their sponsoring agency.
The database of credentialed and in-progress students would be searchable by State law enforcement training and certification authorities, as well as by agency training divisions or their training officers. Sponsoring agencies would accept responsibility to provide tutorial or pertinent training support as their students might require, and additionally would monitor their sponsored candidates’ progress.
Conclusion
A national RLEO certification process and credential is of genuine importance to the nation’s law enforcement community.
FLETC’s national RLEO certification process would save state and local agencies tens of thousands of in-class hours across the nation, and preserve their dwindling resources while delivering relevant training that is specifically required by state and agency requirements. For RLEOs, their credentialing process would be transparent, rational, and encourage them to remain active in the reserve law enforcement careers.
For the nation, FLETC trained and certified RLEOs would represent a group that has met consistent national standards that enable interoperability nationwide. Importantly, this would promote flexibility when additional properly trained, equipped, and experience law enforcement resources are needed for national emergencies, natural disasters that are regional in scope, or for critical incident support.
//signed//
William J. Cox, JPO; Chairman, Council for Law Enforcement Reserves
Kevin F. Jura, MPO; Chairman, CLER Professional Standards Committee
