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CLEET seeks pay adjustments, advances plan for advanced response center and requests software-staff support
Summary
Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training Director Derry Stacy told the subcommittee CLEET is expanding academies and reviewing curricula while seeking personnel market adjustments, an advanced active response center (ARC) shoot house and budget support for licensing software and retirement changes to aid recruitment.
Director Derry Stacy told the Appropriations Subcommittee that CLEET is increasing training output while pursuing facility upgrades and pay adjustments intended to improve instructor recruitment and retention.
“Our vision is to consistently improve the professionalism of Oklahoma's peace officers,” Director Derry Stacy said as he outlined CLEET’s program and capital priorities. “We want to be the best training agency in the nation.”
Why it matters: CLEET certifies and trains the majority of newly sworn Oklahoma peace officers, plus private security, private investigators and bail enforcers. The agency said it certified hundreds more officers last year and faces capacity pressures: an increasing cadet pipeline has created wait lists for basic academy seats, which means some recruits remain on the street longer without full certification.
Major items presented: CLEET described three near‑term priorities: (1) market adjustments and personnel costs to make instructor pay competitive, (2) construction and outfitting of an Advanced Response Center (ARC) — a configurable shoot‑house and training compound for active‑shooter and real‑world scenario training — and (3) continued investment in licensing software and associated managed services (Thentia) that CLEET said will have stepped cost increases in coming years.
On personnel and retirement: Stacy presented comparative pay charts and told the committee CLEET’s instructor and staff pay lags regional partners and recommended market adjustments. He also said CLEET is pursuing participation in the OPERS retirement system (legislation to begin actuarial analysis and eventual potential transfer would be a multi‑year process) to reduce the retirement‑benefit gap that hampers hiring of mid‑career officers.
ARC and training technology: Stacy described the ARC as a modular indoor shoot house with configurable rooms and an active‑shooter training system (laser/airsoft simulators and a control/recording suite), variable lighting and external scenario spaces (traffic stops, residential entries). He said the facility is designed to serve CLEET cadets and outside agencies for realistic, repeatable scenario training with after‑action review.
Licensing software costs: CLEET staff explained a managed services/licensing‑software contract (Thentia) that supports credentialing and licensing will see an increase in per‑license charges; CLEET said the vendor allowed a stepped increase for the coming year (to about $0.35 per license) but that the negotiated vendor rate could be higher in future years, which CLEET staff said will affect FY26 budgeting.
Outlook: CLEET requested support for personnel market adjustments, continued investments to complete the ARC and one‑time facility upgrades (safe rooms, flooring, lighting) to keep the campus and training operations at scale. Director Stacy said CLEET would follow the subcommittee with actuarial work on retirement participation and return later in the process with cost estimates for proposed pay and retirement changes.
