Brief(1)
H.B. 2278 would require nonsalaried reserve police officers to obtain 80 hours of training prior to their initial appointment as a reserve or part-time police officer. Further, these officers will be required to complete 16 hours of continuing education annually.
Incumbent reserve officers serving as of July 1, 1999, are exempt from the 80-hour training requirement if their status as a reserve officer is certified to the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center (KLETC) on or before December 31, 1999.
The new training requirement applies to members of nonpaid groups or individuals who operate as an adjunct to a police or sheriff's department including reserve officers, posses, and search and rescue groups.
Background
Proponents included representatives of the KLETC, the Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police, the Riley County Police Department, and the Kansas Sheriff's Department. The bill was opposed by the League of Kansas Municipalities.
A representative of the Training Center noted that a survey had been conducted of 425 law enforcement agencies with 341 responding. The survey revealed that a significant number of Kansas law enforcement agencies utilize reserve officers. Forty-five percent of survey respondents do so, presently utilizing over 1,100 such officers, an average of 7.24 reserve officers per agency. Over 40 percent of city agencies and 65 percent of sheriffs' agencies use reserve officers. While reserve officer utilization is frequent and widespread, many agencies appear not to provide structured basic training to such officers. Survey results indicate that only 61 percent of respondents provide basic training; however, given the well-known constitutional and liability consequences of failing to provide such training to persons fulfilling law enforcement officer duties, KLETC believes that many agencies may have misinterpreted, and thus "mis-answered," this survey component. However, even assuming that more than 61 percent of respondents provide structured training, survey results indicate that it is extremely unlikely that all agencies provide basic training to their reserve officers.
The majority (76 percent) of responding agencies indicated that reserve officers should be subject to a state basic training mandate; most wanted, however, to satisfy such a mandate at the local level without sending their reserve officers away from home for training. Yet, the majority believe mandated training programs must be approved by KLETC. By over a 2-to-1 margin, respondents believe local agencies should be responsible for complying with a reserve officer training mandate by way of a KLETC-approved curriculum.
The League of Kansas Municipalities representative opposed the bill saying that it would inhibit the use of reserve officers as follows: reserve officers, most of whom maintain full-time employment elsewhere, would find it difficult to meet the initial training of 80 hours of accredited instruction plus the 16 hours of continuing education. Further, this would be cost-prohibitive for cities and it would be unlikely that individuals with full-time jobs would be able to take time away from their primary employment to attend two weeks worth of training.
The fiscal note anticipates increased costs for KLETC and for cities and counties required to comply with the act but no dollar estimates are given.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html.