Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Police Training topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Manaway police chief presents training records amid public concern over competency
Summary
Chief Jared Mitketh told the council Manaway officers meet and often exceed the state's minimum 40-hour POST training requirement; he said some in-house and qualifications hours are not yet fully recorded and he is working to ensure outside training is logged.
Chief Jared Mitketh briefed the council on officer training after repeated public questions about whether the department meets state requirements.
Mitketh said POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) requires a minimum of 40 hours of training per fiscal year and that the department's logged hours exceed that minimum for each listed officer: "Officer 1" logged 114.75 hours, others ranged from about 62 to 125 hours, he said, while noting that firearms qualifications and some in-person trainings are not always listed in the state reporting and he is working to have those hours recorded.
He described required topic areas (assault/abuse investigation, trauma-informed practice, crisis intervention, mental-health topics and de-escalation) and said those topics form about 16 of the required 40 hours; the remainder can be site- or agency-specific. Mitketh also said training courses include tests and certifications (state standard 80% pass) and that the department coordinates some training with nearby agencies.
Councilors thanked the chief for the briefing and noted a renewed emphasis on training in light of recent incidents. Mitketh said the department will place monthly call statistics and training summaries on the department's web page and promised to work with staff to capture outside-qualification hours for reporting.
