Events across the country have peaked legislative interest in law enforcement standards and training, resulting in new and updated statutory training requirements. Nearly all states have enacted laws addressing training requirements.
These statutes require law enforcement personnel statewide to be trained on specific topics. Forty-one states have laws on initial (or basic) training. Another 41 states and the District of Columbia address training at recurring intervals or at some point after initial training often known as in-service training or continuing education. Nineteen states have laws addressing specialization training, for example training for school resource officers or SWAT teams.
Most states also have laws addressing training that is unrelated to career specialization and do not specify whether it is required as initial or as in-service training. For example, West Virginia's law requires all law enforcement receive training related to responding to calls involving domestic violence.
Statutory Approaches
The structure of these statutes varies. Some states provide a detailed outline of requirements. Commonly addressed aspects of training include how many hours are required, topics and content to be addressed, whether the training must be received in person and who is approved to provide the training.
For example, Arkansas law requires officers completing a commission-certified basic police training academy to complete at least "16 hours of training related to behavioral health crisis intervention in a law enforcement context." The statute then further specifies that training must cover certain content, including:
- The dynamics of relating to an individual with a behavioral health impairment, who is under the influence to the extent that their judgment and decision-making process is impaired, or who has demonstrated substantial likelihood of harm to self or others.
- Information on available mental health service providers and support services.
- Information on voluntary and involuntary commitment process.
- Law enforcement interaction with hospitals, mental health professionals, the judiciary and the mental health services community.
- Practices to promote the safety of law enforcement officers and the public.
Indiana has a similar provision specifying the number of hours for training officers on interacting with missing endangered adults, persons with Alzheimer's disease, or persons with autism, mental illness, addictive disorders or intellectual or developmental disabilities. The training must be conducted by people approved by the secretary of family and social services in addition to the state training board.
Alternatively, in many states the law is less detailed, requiring training on a subject, with minimal requirements or leaving the particulars to be determined by state training boards or other local authorities designated by law.
For example, West Virginia requires officers to receive training "relating to response to calls involving domestic violence." Similarly, Colorado directs the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board to create and implement a training that prepares law enforcement officers to "recognize and address incidents of abuse and exploitation of at-risk adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities."
Training Topics
Nearly every state mandates training that can be categorized in one of the following groups: use of force, interactions with specified populations, education on physical and mental health conditions, cultural and racial bias and other topics.
In the last few years, many states have updated or added more specific training requirements for use of force. At least 22 states and the District of Columbia currently have laws. Subtopics addressed in statute include de-escalation, use of deadly force, neck restraints and duty to intervene. Washington, for example, requires training on use of force that includes "'shoot/don't shoot' scenario training" and physical or deadly force alternatives "so that de-escalation tactics and less lethal alternatives are part of the decision-making process leading up to the consideration of deadly force."
At least 43 states have established legislative requirements for law enforcement training on interactions with specified populations. This includes domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, harassment, hate crimes and elder abuse among others. Illinois, for example, requires in-service training on interactions with domestic violence victims every five years. Arizona requires initial officer training on responding to hate crimes.
Physical and mental health conditions are addressed by at least 38 states and the District of Columbia. Physical and mental health issues addressed vary greatly state by state. Indiana, for example, requires a "mental health first aid" training be created and made available to law enforcement officers.
Louisiana law requires training on face-to-face communications with hard of hearing or deaf persons, requiring curriculum to also include Alzheimer's and dementia training.
Crisis intervention team training and other training on responding to mental health emergencies has been a notable area of expansion in recent years.
At least 26 states and the District of Columbia have laws for training on cultural and racial bias. Connecticut, for example, requires training on cultural competency and sensitivity and bias-free policing, including "implicit bias training." Texas requires training on racial sensitivity, cultural diversity and racial profiling as part of their initial training for officers.
At least 39 states have law enforcement training requirements that do not fit into the above categories. These include training on firearms, body-worn cameras, autonomous vehicles and animal encounters. Other examples include high speed pursuit training, first aid and CPR.
Using the Database
Learn more about law enforcement training by exploring the 50-state statutory database.
Note that this section of the database encompasses statutory law enforcement training requirements only. It does not include regulatory requirements, police officer standards and training (POST) board requirements, or any other non-statutory training requirements developed at the state or local level.
The database can be navigated by using state, training content and training type filters. Text searching is available for statutory summaries or statutory language contained in the database. The map is also interactive and allows you to more quickly select multiple states to review. To remove applied filters, click the "clear all filters" button in the bottom left of the page.
Note that this database only contains statutory provisions that address each policy area. Case law, regulations or agency policy may further impact the current state of the law in each state. This database also does not address policies adopted by local jurisdictions or law enforcement agencies.