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Committee allows Criminal Justice Academy to initiate investigations when officers provide materially false information
Summary
The committee approved a regulation permitting the law enforcement training council (Criminal Justice Academy) to initiate investigations if an officer willfully provides materially false information to the academy; the change addresses a gap the academy said prevented it from acting when agencies did not investigate.
The House committee approved a regulation change that permits the law enforcement training council and the Criminal Justice Academy to initiate investigations when an officer willfully provides materially false information to the academy.
The regulation (document 5302) removes a prior restriction that required the officer’s home agency to initiate such investigations. The change also states that an attorney from the Criminal Justice Academy may prosecute the allegation at hearing and that a council member may serve as the hearing officer. The subcommittee recommended approval and the full committee recorded approval by roll call.
Jimmy Finnell, speaking for the Criminal Justice Academy, said the change is intended to "stop an appealable issue" where the academy lacked authority to investigate when an officer lied directly to academy staff. Finnell said the academy's caseload has risen: when the regulation first passed in 2015 the academy received about 110 allegations a year; "currently, as of calendar year 2024, we received 222," and he described that many allegations involve dishonesty: "about 85% of every single allegation we get in are some form of lie, whether it's to their agency, to a court, or to us."
Committee members discussed the workload and the academy’s role; committee members were told the academy trains roughly 1,000 new recruits a year and the state has about "14,000" officers and deputies, figures the academy supplied as context.
The committee approved document 5302 by roll call (recorded as 9–0 in the transcript). The regulation change allows the academy to pursue misconduct allegations when an officer provides materially false information to the Criminal Justice Academy, rather than relying solely on the officer's home agency to initiate a review.
