Ohio requires more training of barbers than police officers: Reforms discussed

That’s less training than the state requires to cut someone’s hair as a barber or cosmetologist.

But while some state leaders have pushed for years to increase police training and oversight standards, others have pushed back with concerns about the cost to local police departments and cadets who pay for it out-of-pocket.

Some law enforcement officials fear raising the bar for police training could make it even harder to recruit cadets to address police staffing shortages across the state. The Ohio Senate passed a bill that would lower the minimum age to become an officer from 21 to 18 in an effort to get more recruits.

Any day now, a state task force formed last year by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is expected to release a list of recommended updates to the state’s minimum police training academy requirements.

“We need multidimensional training — the classroom and the mat — that includes scenario-based courses by which the physical aspects of the training are repeated,” said Yost when announcing the effort in September. “Repetition is key, so officers can instinctively rely on their training when faced with a hostile situation so that everyone — the community, the officer and the person being detained — remain safe.”

The task force, consisting of high-ranking law enforcement officials across the state including from Dayton and Vandalia, was expected to return its recommendations by mid-January.

The recommendations will be considered by the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission, which can deny or accept the proposals and thus enact sweeping changes to the curricula of the state’s 73 accredited police training academies.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in the most recent state budget secured funding for 40 hours of additional continuing education training for police, and is asking for money for improved training facilities. He has said any requirement to increase training, however, must come with funding so it doesn’t create an unfunded mandate for departments.

It’s not clear what exactly Yost’s blue-ribbon group is considering. Efforts to learn what the group reviewed in its meetings were stymied by Yost’s request that members refrain from commenting on specific considerations until after their report is released. The attorney general’s office, too, told this news organization that there were no meeting minutes for the group’s six gatherings over recent months.

When contacted for comment, Dayton police officials would not provide clarity of what sort of recommendations it would like to see at the state level. The Dayton Police Department runs its own academy to train its officers.

Police academies

Vandalia Police Chief Kurt Althouse, who sat on the committee, wouldn’t provide details about its findings. He did, however, talk to this organization about academies in a broad sense. He explained that police training is ever-changing and noted that academy training nowadays focuses much more on softer skills than it did when he first started policing over three decades ago.

“I see more emphasis on critical thinking skills and making sure that you respond appropriately to calls,” Althouse said. “Also, there’s more emphasis on de-escalation, and de-escalation involves taking more time to listen to the individuals in it, listen to what they’re saying, how they’re acting. They might be experiencing a mental health crisis. So, rather than rushing to judgment, putting someone in handcuffs, (and) taking them to jail, you might find other ways to resolve the situation.”

Academies across Ohio are governed by a set of administrative rules that set out how many hours basic training must cover and the topics it must consist of.

Today, Ohio requires a minimum of 740 hours covering legal; human relations; firearms; driving; investigation; traffic; patrol; civil disorders; subject control; first aid; physical conditioning; and homeland security topics.

The rules give academies “reasonable latitude” on how to cover these topics and encourages the academies to exceed the minimum as they see fit.

An analysis of the ongoing curriculum at Sinclair Criminal Justice Training Academy in Dayton found that the academy added a combined 65 hours of additional training on patrol rifle, report writing, TASER and pepper spray usage, communication with the deaf or hard of hearing, and various other topics.

Academy Commander Joe Niehaus told this news organization that the add-ons were folded into the curriculum after surveying local police departments about what skills and training they want their cadets to have.

Curriculum vs cost

Richard Biehl, Dayton’s former police chief, said he hopes whatever recommendations the group comes up with actually address and respond to the ever-broadening array of work police officers are asked to do on a daily basis.

“We certainly need to expand the majority of the training beyond enforcing the law, because, quite honestly, that’s the thing police officers do the least in their eight-hour tour of duty. It’s just a minority of what police actually do,” Biehl said. “Now, it’s not insignificant, I’m not saying it should be disregarded, but the over-emphasis on the enforcement aspect of policing negates and ignores all of the other things that police do.”

For Biehl, the very nature of policing has changed as society has put more and more responsibility on officers’ shoulders. He views softer skills, a less authoritarian approach to policing and an officer’s awareness of their own implicit biases as fundamental to getting good policing outcomes in the modern age.

“Our relationship with the community is either strengthened or weakened by the day-to-day encounters and by how we treat people with fairness and respect. So it is, what I would say, the softer skills that are critical and it’s the lack thereof that can lead to escalating encounters with the members of the community,” Biehl said.

Former Montgomery County sheriff and current state Rep. Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp., told this news organization that having a top-notch training academy curriculum in Ohio is important, but its effect is limited if there aren’t enough recruits actually interested in obtaining the training.

Plummer’s biggest concern with the current academy system is the cost that comes out of recruits’ and cities’ pockets for such essential training.

“I think the key is we have to find a dedicated funding stream, and this can include academy and everyday working law enforcement officers,” Plummer said. “(In) major police department academies like Dayton Police — they pay a student to go through the academy, but the city’s eating that cost. At the sheriff’s office, we don’t pay you to go to the academy, you have to do your academy on your own, then we hire you afterwards.”

Althouse said that the cost of academies is the biggest deterrent for would-be recruits and one of the largest hurdles smaller police departments have in hiring from a dwindling pool of workers.

“Most academies right now, it ranges anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000 for a recruit to attend, and some of those recruits are having to pay that out of pocket to attend the academy before they find a police officer position,” Althouse said. “So, that’s a pretty big expense for them to take on. And the time (commitments) if they’re attending an academy training and working full time, that’s a pretty big demand for them.”