Indiana is making changes to its Law Enforcement Training Board in an effort to improve training for police across the state.
The changes are a priority of Gov. Eric Holcomb and come from an independent review of police training unveiled last year.
Police in Indiana are mostly trained at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in central Indiana. But there are also training sites in northwest and southwest Indiana, as well as Fort Wayne and Bloomington.
Senate legislation, SB 294, would add the leaders of those other academies to the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board, in an effort to make sure officers are getting the same training no matter which academy they attend.
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Bill Owensby is the head of the state Fraternal Order of Police.
"That’s so important to have – especially the more serious facets of training – to be standardized across the state," Owensby said.
The bill also adds civilians to the board for the first time. There’s nothing in the measure, though, that requires them to be from communities of color, which concerns Sen. Jean Breaux (D-Indianapolis).
“In an area that has so many issues with the interaction amongst minority communities,” Breaux said.
The bill is headed for the full Senate.
Contact reporter Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.
