Training our law officers

The Gazette Editorial Board

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It makes perfect sense for local and nearby law enforcement agencies to train their personnel at the Cedar Rapids Police Department's Regional Police Academy.

Training officers at the regional academy not only saves departments considerable time and money, it helps build relationships between agencies likeliest to work together on cross-jurisdictional investigations and response.

The curriculum is the same as that offered at the state Law Enforcement Academy in Johnston. The instructors are similarly certified and approved by the state Law Enforcement Academy council.

Until recently, it was relatively easy for agencies to receive permission from state authorities to train at the Cedar Rapids academy rather than at the state academy.

So easy, the CRPD entered into mutually beneficial arrangements with area agencies offering free use of the facility in exchange for help funding the city's outdoor gun range - the kind of efficient pooling of resources we should be encouraging of our public employees.

But in recent months, members of the state Law Enforcement Academy council have denied departments' requests to train at the Cedar Rapids facility. Their reasoning? The ILEA needs the money.

By denying law enforcement agencies permission to train at regional academies, the council hopes to help keep the central academy afloat.

The council has decided to revisit the issue at their December meeting. We urge the council to reconsider.

More than that, we hope they do away with the exception process, altogether, and issue blanket approval for local agencies to train at the Cedar Rapids academy whenever they see fit.

We understand the need for a strong central academy to train departments throughout the state, but it shouldn't have to come at local agencies' expense.

The state academy was hit on all fronts during the recent economic downturn, with dwindling government appropriations, across-the-board cuts and cash-strapped city and county governments leading to fewer hires and officers needing training. State appropriations make up about one-third of the ILEA's funding; the rest comes from user fees.

Those fees are hefty compared with the Cedar Rapids' facility, according to data from the ILEA council. The tuition cost for a single officer at the ILEA is $5,374 per officer. Tuition at the Cedar Rapids police Academy is $1,500. Departments provide their own ammunition.

The difference - nearly $4,000 a pop in taxpayer money - directly impacts how many officers an agency can afford to train and put on our local streets to help keep our communities safe.

It's unreasonable for state council members to deny access to an efficient, quality regional police training academy just to fix the state facility's problems.

Longer term, the Iowa Legislature - which authorized creation of the state academy in 1967 - should address both the ILEA's funding shortfall and its ability to restrict agencies from choosing qualified regional facilities for training.

We don't deny the importance of a strong central academy, especially for ensuring high training standards are in place statewide. However, Cedar Rapids' strong regional academy shouldn't be sacrificed to solve the state facility's funding issues. That's shortsighted, at best.

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