New Hampshire police training agency says most 2019 audit findings resolved; work continues on job task analysis and physical-aptitude testing

John Skippa, director of New Hampshire Police Standards and Training, told the Joint Legislative Performance Audit and Oversight Committee that his agency has resolved most items identified in a February 2019 Legislative Budget Assistant (LBA) performance audit but is still working to finish several recommendations.

Skippa told the committee that the 2019 audit identified 16 issues and “all but 4 of them have been fully resolved.” He said the unresolved items include implementing a job task analysis (Observation 6), designing a physical aptitude test for officers, completing a strategic plan and performance measures (Observation 7), updating administrative rules (Observation 10), and improving the corrections advisory committee process (Observation 16).

The job task analysis produced by an outside vendor was funded by a year-end transfer of existing budget money, Skippa said, so the agency did not seek additional appropriations. The vendor also gathered data to inform a new physical-aptitude test; the state currently uses the Cooper test, which Skippa said has been in use since 2001 and measures mile-and-a-half run, push-ups and sit-ups. Skippa said stakeholders asked whether a different test that better reflects on-the-job tasks — for example, exiting a patrol car, negotiating stairs and barriers, and upper-body tasks required in arrests — would be more appropriate.

“We were able to secure a company that could conduct an independent and objective job task analysis,” Skippa said. He described plans to convene subject-matter-expert groups in October and November, drawing police executives, middle managers, prosecutors, mental-health professionals, victim-witness advocates and others to compare job-task analysis results with the existing curriculum. The agency plans to finish those meetings by the end of 2026 and then implement recommended curriculum changes that the council approves.

Major Adam Hawkins, who oversees the professional development bureau, was identified as working with subject-matter experts and fitness instructors to design the new physical-aptitude battery. Skippa said fitness instructors certified through Police Standards and Training will pilot candidate and incumbent tests so the agency can collect data before making changes to certification requirements.

Skippa also described an expected shift in use of impact tools, noting that baton training will remain available but will no longer be mandated as more departments adopt electronic weapons. “We still deliver the baton class in the recruit academy, but we’re seeing less and less agencies…actually issuing that particular device to their officers,” he said.

On governance and advisory processes, Skippa told the committee that the corrections advisory committee (created by statute at RSA 106-L:5) had been reconvened in 2020 and 2021 but that some statutorily identified membership positions later went unfilled. That gap, plus the committee’s membership (he said many members are senior administrators rather than front-line supervisors), limited the committee’s utility for shaping 1-to-5-year corrections officer training. Skippa said he has discussed membership and staffing issues with the new Department of Corrections commissioner and would prefer to try informal solutions with the commissioner before seeking statutory changes.

Representative Rosenwald asked how many recommendations from the related LIAC (Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community and Transparency) report had been implemented. Skippa said he did not have a precise count at the hearing but would provide the information to the committee; he said the agency was responsible for about 22 of the LIAC recommendations and that most of those have been addressed.

The committee did not take any new policy votes on the recommendations at the meeting. Skippa gave a target of first-quarter (calendar-year) completion for the job task analysis deliverable and said broader curriculum amendments would follow after the subject-matter panels and council review.

Ending

Committee members thanked Skippa and his staff for the update and moved on to other agenda items. The committee chair noted the agency will return to the committee with further progress updates and any statutory or rulemaking proposals that result from the job task analysis and the subject-matter expert recommendations.