The state agency that trains new police officers in Oregon is proposing a major change to get police officers on the streets more quickly – without changing the requirements and length of training.
A KATU investigation found the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training – the Oregon agency responsible for training police officers - wants to dramatically change how it provides that training to address the 6-month wait for a new officer to start police academy and bring the state in compliance with state law that requires new officers be enrolled in training within 90 days of being hired.
To do so, the agency proposed a $6.4 million plan to add night classes and grow academies from the traditional 40-person class to 60 people. It would mean hundreds more new officers trained over the next two years.
The plan affects no local agency more than Portland; the police bureau is by far the most frequent user of the state academy – which is required for every new police officer in Oregon. Any hire with no police experience must go to Salem for state-mandated, 16-week basic training.
“We've hired a hundred new police officers over the last year, and about half of them are sitting around waiting for access to DPSST training academies,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said.
The typical training for Portland officers takes about 18 months until they are on the streets alone, so the 6-month wait for the academy makes the total time closer to two years.
Current training classes are 40 people; over the last two years, DPSST has been able to train about 800 officers.
The proposal gives the agency permission to try three 60-person classes that start in November, December, and January. The hours of operation would shift to start earlier in the day and extend into night classes. The money from the legislature covers trainers and the cost of running academies.
There is a connection to the walkout -- the plan is in limbo if lawmakers don’t pass a budget before the session ends.
“What this would cause us to have to do is kind of blow the rivets off the building, and we'd have to move to night courses,” DPSST Deputy Director Brian Henson said.
The proposal increases the possible number of trained officers over a two-year period from 800 to 1,100. However, DPSST leaders will go back before the legislature in early 2024 to update lawmakers on the progress of the 60-person class. If it works, the state could then expand more 40-person academies to 60 people.
“They want to see that we're able to maintain the quality of the training that we provide, that we're able to maintain the safety of our staff and our students as we put them through the process, [and] that we're able to actually effectively utilize the agency to the capacity that we believe that we can,” Henson said. “So, conceptually on paper, it works. We got to prove in concept that it will actually come to fruition and be able to be held to truth.”
Here’s why that’s important.
Most agencies in Oregon have more vacancies today than 5 years ago, according to a recent report done for the DPSST. The report authors surveyed agencies and found, “half of the responding agencies indicated that the shortage of full-time sworn personnel has increased.”
The report said without changes, the backlog will continue to grow.
Henson is confident the proposal will work.
“It is important for everybody - for the state and for the cities and the counties and the communities that are served - for those officers to be trained as quickly as possible, but again, to the quality and the requirement of the board-approved training,” Henson said.
“I'm appreciative that the Governor has seen the importance of this issue in getting to the backlog of trained officers and making sure those academy sizes are commensurate with the number of people that we're currently recruiting in the city of Portland,” Wheeler said.