BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 11 (Beall) - Peace officer training: mental health
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|Version: April 15, 2015 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: May 11, 2015 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 11 would require the Commission on Peace Officer
Standards and Training (POST) to develop behavioral health
training courses, as specified, to be completed by law
enforcement officers, as follows:
At least 20 additional hours of behavioral health
classroom training in addition to the current hour
requirement for peace officers in the academy.
At least four consecutive hours of behavioral health
continuing training every four years, as specified, as part
of the requirement for perishable skills training for all
officers with rank of supervisor or below, as specified.
Fiscal
Impact:
POST impact : One-time costs for course development of
$120,000 to $350,000 (Special Fund*). Ongoing annual costs of,
at a minimum, $525,000 (Special Fund*), increasing in future
years to reflect enrollment growth.
SB 11 (Beall) Page 1 of
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Mandated law enforcement training : Potentially major
state-reimbursable local costs in the low millions of dollars
annually to backfill for missed work hours for officers to
attend the continuing education training. There are currently
482 cities and 58 counties in California employing about
77,000 sworn peace officers. To the extent local agency
expenditures qualify as a reimbursable state mandate, agencies
could claim reimbursement of those costs (General Fund). Costs
to backfill for missed work hours for all officers with rank
supervisor or below are estimated to cost in the range of $10
million over a four-year period. To the extent the continuing
training established is greater than four hours, the estimated
costs would be commensurately greater.
*Peace Officers' Training Fund
Background: Existing law requires specified categories of law enforcement
officers to meet training standards pursuant to courses of
training certified by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards
and Training (POST). Existing law requires POST to include in
its basic training course adequate instruction in the handling
of persons with developmental disabilities or mental illness, or
both. Existing law also requires POST to establish and keep
updated a continuing education classroom training course
relating to law enforcement interaction with developmentally
disabled and mentally ill persons.
The current POST training curriculum for prospective officers
mandates 664 hours (16 weeks) of training. Under current law,
officers receive six hours of POST-approved training on how to
interact with persons with mental illness and developmental
disabilities as part of the Regular Basic Training Course, as
required by Penal Code § 13519.2. While there is no mandatory
continuing education requirement, POST offers a variety of
courses relating to mental health. According to information
provided by POST, there are currently 38 mental health certified
courses available to California law enforcement. These courses
range in duration from four to 40 hours.
Proposed Law:
This bill would mandate the following behavioral health training
for peace officers:
SB 11 (Beall) Page 2 of
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Requires POST to establish and keep updated a promising
or evidence-based behavioral health classroom training
course to train law enforcement officers to recognize,
deescalate, and refer persons with mental illness or
intellectual disability who are in crisis.
Requires that the behavioral health classroom training
course to take place in the academy, be at least 20 hours
long, and be in addition to the basic training course's
current hour requirement.
Requires POST to establish and keep updated a behavioral
health continuing training course relating to law
enforcement interaction with persons with mental illness
that is equivalent in its importance to perishable skills
training.
Requires the course to be at least four consecutive
hours in duration and address issues related to stigma, be
culturally relevant and appropriate, and included specified
topics.
Requires each law enforcement officer with a rank of
supervisor or below and who is assigned to patrol duties or
to supervise officers who are assigned to patrol duties to
complete the course every four years.
Related
Legislation: SB 29 (Beall) 2015 would mandate field training
requirements. This bill is scheduled to be heard today by this
Committee.
Prior Legislation: AB 1718 (Hertzberg) Chapter 95/2000 required
POST to establish and update a continuing education classroom
training course regarding persons with developmental
disabilities or mental illness.
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SB 2049 (Vasconcellos) 1998 would have required the POST to
provide a training course on persons with developmental
disabilities or mental illness to law enforcement officers every
four years and to require that custodial staff employed in
private correctional companies receive the training certified
under the CCPOST. This bill was vetoed by the Governor with the
following message:
This bill would require the Commission on Peace Officer
Standards and Training (POST), to provide additional training
every four years in the handling of persons with developmental
disabilities or mental illness. This bill would also require
custodial officers employed in privately operated correctional
facilities housing state inmates, to satisfactorily complete a
basic course of training certified by the Commission on
Correctional Peace Officers' Standards and Training
(CPOST).
This bill is unnecessary. Current law (Penal Code Section
13519.2), already requires POST to include within their basic
training course for law enforcement officers adequate
instruction in the handling of persons with developmental
disabilities or mental illness, or both. That same Penal Code
Section requires additional training to update this instruction
as necessary.
POST has developed telecourses on this topic in 1990 and 1995.
This bill would impose an unfunded mandate on local law
enforcement agencies and hamper their flexibility to provide
local training needs that may have a higher priority.
The Department of Corrections currently requires custodial
officers employed in privately operated correctional facilities
housing state inmates, to complete the Correctional Monitor
Training course provided by the Board of Corrections. I am in
favor of ensuring that those individuals are properly trained.
However, as these custodial officers are not designated as
peace officers, significant differences exist between their
duties and powers and those of correctional officers employed in
state prisons. As such, I am not convinced that CPOST is the
appropriate entity to be establishing those standards.
SB 11 (Beall) Page 4 of
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Staff
Comments: POST has indicated this bill does not provide
supplemental funding for development of the training. Dependent
on the type of training developed by POST to satisfy the
proposed training requirement, the cost to POST could range from
$120,000 to $350,000.
The cost to increase the minimum hours of the basic training by
20 hours would be approximately $150 per student. With an
average of 3,500 students per year that attend the regular basic
course, the average annual reimbursement expense to POST could
be as high as $525,000. This figure will rise as enrollments
continue to increase. POST has indicated concerns due to the
continuing decline in revenue to the State Penalty Fund, which
is the source from which the Peace Officers' Training Fund
receives the funding for POST operations and provides aid to
local law enforcement agencies that participate in the POST
Program.
The 2015-16 Governor's Budget includes a reduction of $5.3
million and 36.9 positions beginning in 2015-16 to help with the
long-term solvency of the Peace Officers' Training Fund (POTF).
Staff notes the POTF continues to operate at a deficit, with a
projected year-end balance of $7.1 million in 2014-15, declining
further to $3.6 million in 2015-16.
In addition to the costs to POST, law enforcement agencies would
incur additional costs to backfill for hours that the officers
spend in the continuing education training. Several test claims
related to law enforcement training (elder abuse, racial
profiling, and sexual harassment) have been determined by the
Commission on State Mandates to be reimbursable state mandates,
requiring reimbursement from the state for associated costs. It
is estimated the provisions of this bill would result in ongoing
costs likely in the low millions of dollars annually for these
activities. As the bill authorizes mandated training of at least
four hours, to the extent the training hours established exceed
four hours, the level of potentially state-reimbursable costs
would also increase.
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