Bloomington police are undergoing four times the amount of training required by state statute.
That’s one of a few items Bloomington Police Chief Michael Diekhoff and Fire Department Chief Jason Moore pointed out from last year’s Public Safety report released Wednesday.
Moore says the Fire Department invested 50,000 total hours into training over the 2018 cycle amounting to nearly 450 hours of training per person.
He says training also includes employees becoming professionally credentialed.
“Chief Diekhoff discussed how important employee health is. This is the pinnacle. We talk to firefighters who’re almost professional athletes, so you go from 0 to 100 and you’re expected to perform,” says Moore.
Diekhoff says police training hours increased 11.6% from 2017 emphasizing mental health, anti-bias and implicit bias recognition, and community policing.
City employee skills building was part of Mayor John Hamilton’s State of the City Address in 2016.