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Senate bill would add dispatchers and incidental reimbursements to public‑safety education fund; department and training council support expansion
Summary
SB 59 would expand an existing recruitment and retention program to include public‑safety telecommunicators (dispatchers), allow reimbursement for noncredit training, and create a nonlapsing fund for incidental police‑academy costs with a $125,000 appropriation. Department of Safety and Police Standards support the changes.
Senator David Waters described Senate Bill 59 as a set of technical and substantive changes to an existing recruitment and retention program that reimburses community‑college courses and fire‑academy costs for prospective police, fire, EMTs and corrections officers. The bill would add public‑safety telecommunicators (dispatchers) to the eligible groups, allow reimbursement for noncredit training, and create a nonlapsing fund to cover incidental police‑academy costs.
Waters said the program began with a $1,000,000 appropriation and had early uptake: by the committee's first report through July it enrolled about 46 people, and enrollments — particularly for the fire academy — had risen since then. "If you wanna come in and work for public safety and go to the Police or Fire Academy, we wanna support you," Waters said, framing the changes as recruitment and retention measures.
Steve Lavoie, assistant commissioner at the Department of Safety, testified in support and said the department is seeing recruitment challenges for dispatchers as well as traditional first responders. He described the full‑time recruit school at the Fire Academy as an eight‑week program that yields firefighter‑1 and firefighter‑2 certification and a pathway to career firefighter status. John Skipper, director of the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council, told the committee the proposed fund would help level treatment of incidental costs — such as PT gear and training weapons — that some departments currently absorb while others do not.
The bill also adds a seat on the oversight commission for telecommunicators and includes a $125,000 appropriation for the fund that would be used by the Police Standards and Training Council to reimburse incidental academy costs. Waters and witnesses emphasized that the program's principle is to remove up‑front financial barriers for recruits and to strengthen pathways to degrees or credentials for people entering public safety.
Committee members asked practical questions about program length and scope. Senator Waters initially referenced a 10‑week figure for the recruit school during his remarks; Department of Safety testimony later described the full‑time recruit school as eight weeks, and witnesses agreed community colleges and academies could specify how credits apply to degrees. Skipper said the fund could be used to reduce inequities between departments that can outfit recruits and those that cannot.
The hearing closed with no committee vote; department and training council officials said the program is producing early results and supported the bill's expansions.
