Racial Profiling Training Requirements for Peace Officers

Governor Holden signed House Bill 80 into law.  The law took effect on August 28, 2001.  A provision of this law requires racial profiling training for peace officers, and made it a part of the continuing education requirements.  The Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission was then tasked with determining how this requirement was to be incorporated into the current continuing education requirements.

The POST Commission impaneled a committee to study this issue and report back to the Commissioners at their August 16, 2002, meeting.  The committee made the following recommendations:

1.      All commissioned, licensed peace officers, which have the authority to enforce vehicle/traffic laws, must attend a minimum of one hour of racial profiling training each year.

2.      Individuals who have no authority to make traffic stops are exempt from this annual requirement.

3.      The racial profiling training requirement will commence with the third (3rd) continuing education reporting period (1-1-03 to 12-31-05).

4.      All racial profiling training used to meet the requirement, must be obtained from a licensed training center, an approved provider of continuing education, or the course has been approved by POST.

5.      Racial profiling training may also be used to meet the core curricula area requirements. 

 

The POST Commission accepted the committee’s recommendations.  The recommendations have been drafted into code and filed with the Secretary of State’s Office.  The five requirements are expected to become law on October 31, 2002. 

So what does all of this mean for law enforcement agencies and licensed peace officers?  Lets take each area one at a time. 

1.    All commissioned, licensed peace officers, which have the authority to enforce vehicle/traffic laws, must attend a minimum of one hour of racial profiling training each year. This means that the chief or sheriff and their licensed, commissioned officers must attend one hour racial profiling training each year during their required reporting period.  It doesn’t matter if you make vehicle/traffic stops, but that you are commissioned, licensed, and have the “authority” to make them. 

 

This is different from the rest of the continuing education requirements.  The racial profiling training is to occur each year, not just anytime within the three-year reporting period like the current requirements.  In other words, an officer will not be allowed to take a three-hour racial profiling training course during the last year of the three year reporting period and be in compliance with the requirement.  It must be a minimum of one hour each year.

2.   Individuals who have no authority to make traffic stops are exempt from this annual requirement. Example: State Division of Liquor Control.

 

If a commissioned, licensed peace officer by law has no “authority” to make traffic stops, they will not be required to attend the racial profiling training.

3.   The racial profiling training requirement will commence with the third (3rd) continuing education reporting period (1-1-03 to 12-31-05).

This means that in 2003, 2004, and 2005, all commissioned, licensed peace officers must attend, at a minimum, one hour of training on the subject of racial profiling each of those years. 

4.   All racial profiling training used to meet the requirement must be obtained from a licensed training center, an approved provider of continuing education, or the course has been approved by POST.

All racial profiling training must come from a licensed provider (certain law enforcement associations and entities or licensed training centers) of continuing education.  If a law enforcement agency wants to provide racial profiling training to their officers via in-service training, they must submit the racial profiling course to POST for approval before the training is delivered. There is no cost to the agency for this course approval. The course formatting requirements can be found on the POST website (address below).


The statutory learning objective for racial profiling is as follows: “The annual training concerning the prohibition against racial profiling shall stress understanding and respect for development racial and cultural differences and of effective non-combative methods of carrying out law enforcement duties in a racially and culturally diverse environment.”    The training must address this objective.  The training could be tailored to field officers, first line supervisors, command staff officers or top administrators.  In any case, it must be part and parcel of the learning objective.

  5.   Racial profiling training may also be used to meet the core curricula area requirements. 

The racial profiling training is intended to be part of the 48-hour requirement, not in addition to the 48 hours.  Depending on how the course is constructed, it could qualify not only for racial profiling but could also meet the Legal, Interpersonal Perspectives, Technical or Skill Training core curricula requirements.  The certificates of completion will reflect this two-part usage.

If there are any questions on these new continuing requirements or any other question concerning standards or training, please contact the POST Program at: Peace Officer Standards & Training (POST) Program, 301 W. High St., PO Box 749, Jefferson City, MO  65102. Phone: 573-751-4905, Fax:  573-751-5399, Email: post@dps.mo.gov.