Lack of funding leads to tough choices at police training council
A police recruit at the New Hampshire Police Academy at NHTI shoots at the range under the watchful eye of Captain James Muller, head instructor of the range.
By ALLIE MORRIS
Monitor staff
Sunday, December 6, 2015
(Published in print: Sunday, December 6, 2015)
Peeking over the top of a white cinder block wall, a half-naked man covered in blood started making threats.
“I’m scared man, I don’t want to go back,” he shouts from a jail cell, raising a knife above his head.
A police officer, standing several feet away, urges him to surrender.
“Sir, put down the weapon for me please. We’ll get someone to talk to you,” the officer says sternly, as the man throws his knife to the ground in compliance.
“Good,” an instructor entering the simulation room tells the officer. “You stayed at a distance, actually took a couple steps back.”
The threatening man, actually a video projected at life-size on a screen, is a tool New Hampshire’s Police Standards and Training Council uses to teach future law enforcement officers how to deal with suspects, diffuse tense situations and apply use of force.The Concord-based council trains all law enforcement officers in New Hampshire – including state troopers, Concord police, and Fish and Game officers – at no cost to local departments. But the training council is facing a budget shortfall as its annual revenue continues to decline.
This year, the council eliminated staff positions and closed satellite offices across the state to make ends meet. What remains is a bigger question about the council’s financial future. Without a solution, costs could be downshifted to local police departments and taxpayers.
“The council is going to have to make a decision,” said Police Standards and Training Council Director Donald Vittum. “If the revenue isn’t there, how are we going to have the financial stability to run the institution?”
The council is the only organization in New Hampshire that certifies new law enforcement officers, through a 16-week full-time, basic training academy where recruits live and train at the campus on Institute Drive, Monday through Friday.
The council also offers classes to seasoned officers, on everything from firearms instruction and interrogation techniques to basic drug investigations and “dealing with the emotionally disturbed person.”
And it’s free; departments don’t have to pay tuition to send officers to the council-run training classes.
That has been possible through the council’s funding model. It doesn’t receive money from the state budget and is instead financed almost exclusively by the state’s penalty assessment, a 24 percent surcharge attached on top of some traffic and court fines. The council receives two-thirds of the 24 percent fee, meaning every $100 ticket generates $16 in revenue.
But in recent years, that income stream has been on the decline, dipping from $3.8 million in 2006 to just more than $2.8 million this year, according to council figures. And nobody’s quite sure why. Are officers writing fewer tickets? Are judges being more lenient? Or is it something else altogether?
The decline was exacerbated in recent years by the Legislature’s decision to use more than $1 million from the fund to help balance the state’s books.
All together, the hits have taken a toll on the council’s bottom line. This year, the organization cut back on regional video conference classes and closed associated satellite locations in Hampton and Littleton. Officers now have to commute to Concord for training, an added expense for departments in far-flung regions of the state.
The council also stopped paying to bring in outside training companies, so now if a department wants a specialized class not offered by council staff, it has to cover the cost.
During the next two fiscal years, the council still faces a $700,000 shortfall, according to estimates.
At an emergency meeting this fall, police chiefs from across the state advocated against switching to a tuition-based model. It would put new pressure on local departments and taxpayers to fund the training.
“When you start saying, ‘You can only send people to training if you can afford it,’ and you start to put that kind of pressure on small towns, they might take shortcuts or not be able to get the training for their officers,” said Tilton police Chief Robert Cormier, who heads the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police. “Now they are going to start to have problems.”
The chiefs also rejected the idea of converting the 16-week basic training program for new recruits from residential to commuter.
“Someone who lives in the North Country and tries to commute and spend the whole day at the academy and drive back would not only create a hardship, but also overtime costs for the department,” said Dover police Chief and Chairman of the Police Standards and Training Council Anthony Colarusso.
The council can’t legally spend more than it brings in. So now, law enforcement is looking to legislators for solutions.
Republican Rep. John Tholl is proposing this session that the state direct a larger portion of the penalty assessment to the council, away from the judicial branch IT fund. That would raise roughly $700,000 additional dollars for the council, according to a fiscal note on the bill.
Council officials are hopeful.
“Our goal short term is to stay operational the way we are. The long-term goal would be to have the funding sources necessary to restore the cuts that were made,” Colarusso said. “Now, with the scrutiny police are under nationwide, and with the statewide opioid crisis, training is as important as ever.”
Monitor staff
Sunday, December 6, 2015
(Published in print: Sunday, December 6, 2015)
Peeking over the top of a white cinder block wall, a half-naked man covered in blood started making threats.
“I’m scared man, I don’t want to go back,” he shouts from a jail cell, raising a knife above his head.
A police officer, standing several feet away, urges him to surrender.
“Sir, put down the weapon for me please. We’ll get someone to talk to you,” the officer says sternly, as the man throws his knife to the ground in compliance.
“Good,” an instructor entering the simulation room tells the officer. “You stayed at a distance, actually took a couple steps back.”
The threatening man, actually a video projected at life-size on a screen, is a tool New Hampshire’s Police Standards and Training Council uses to teach future law enforcement officers how to deal with suspects, diffuse tense situations and apply use of force.The Concord-based council trains all law enforcement officers in New Hampshire – including state troopers, Concord police, and Fish and Game officers – at no cost to local departments. But the training council is facing a budget shortfall as its annual revenue continues to decline.
This year, the council eliminated staff positions and closed satellite offices across the state to make ends meet. What remains is a bigger question about the council’s financial future. Without a solution, costs could be downshifted to local police departments and taxpayers.
“The council is going to have to make a decision,” said Police Standards and Training Council Director Donald Vittum. “If the revenue isn’t there, how are we going to have the financial stability to run the institution?”
The council is the only organization in New Hampshire that certifies new law enforcement officers, through a 16-week full-time, basic training academy where recruits live and train at the campus on Institute Drive, Monday through Friday.
The council also offers classes to seasoned officers, on everything from firearms instruction and interrogation techniques to basic drug investigations and “dealing with the emotionally disturbed person.”
And it’s free; departments don’t have to pay tuition to send officers to the council-run training classes.
That has been possible through the council’s funding model. It doesn’t receive money from the state budget and is instead financed almost exclusively by the state’s penalty assessment, a 24 percent surcharge attached on top of some traffic and court fines. The council receives two-thirds of the 24 percent fee, meaning every $100 ticket generates $16 in revenue.
But in recent years, that income stream has been on the decline, dipping from $3.8 million in 2006 to just more than $2.8 million this year, according to council figures. And nobody’s quite sure why. Are officers writing fewer tickets? Are judges being more lenient? Or is it something else altogether?
The decline was exacerbated in recent years by the Legislature’s decision to use more than $1 million from the fund to help balance the state’s books.
All together, the hits have taken a toll on the council’s bottom line. This year, the organization cut back on regional video conference classes and closed associated satellite locations in Hampton and Littleton. Officers now have to commute to Concord for training, an added expense for departments in far-flung regions of the state.
The council also stopped paying to bring in outside training companies, so now if a department wants a specialized class not offered by council staff, it has to cover the cost.
During the next two fiscal years, the council still faces a $700,000 shortfall, according to estimates.
At an emergency meeting this fall, police chiefs from across the state advocated against switching to a tuition-based model. It would put new pressure on local departments and taxpayers to fund the training.
“When you start saying, ‘You can only send people to training if you can afford it,’ and you start to put that kind of pressure on small towns, they might take shortcuts or not be able to get the training for their officers,” said Tilton police Chief Robert Cormier, who heads the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police. “Now they are going to start to have problems.”
The chiefs also rejected the idea of converting the 16-week basic training program for new recruits from residential to commuter.
“Someone who lives in the North Country and tries to commute and spend the whole day at the academy and drive back would not only create a hardship, but also overtime costs for the department,” said Dover police Chief and Chairman of the Police Standards and Training Council Anthony Colarusso.
The council can’t legally spend more than it brings in. So now, law enforcement is looking to legislators for solutions.
Republican Rep. John Tholl is proposing this session that the state direct a larger portion of the penalty assessment to the council, away from the judicial branch IT fund. That would raise roughly $700,000 additional dollars for the council, according to a fiscal note on the bill.
Council officials are hopeful.
“Our goal short term is to stay operational the way we are. The long-term goal would be to have the funding sources necessary to restore the cuts that were made,” Colarusso said. “Now, with the scrutiny police are under nationwide, and with the statewide opioid crisis, training is as important as ever.”
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