Back in September, Bluestem Prairie reported that Tony Cornish believes officers get plenty of training & very little actual training in use of their firearms:
Back in July, Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reported in Castile shooting renews calls to boost Minnesota police training:
House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Committee Chair Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, doesn't have a lot of interest in additional training requirements for police. Cornish, a former law enforcement officer, said there's already plenty of training.
"When it comes right down to it, all the training you have, it's still the officer's call at the scene," he said. "You can't have somebody right behind you telling you what to do. It's pretty much up to them and what they're facing at the time."
Apparently, he's changed his mind, along with closing his Facebook page to the general public early last November. Right now, the House Public Safety and Security Policy and Finance Committee is hearing HF 346 (streaming video here).
Back in January, Politics in Minnesota Capitol Report's Kevin Featherly reported:
A bill to increase funding for peace officer crisis intervention training has been introduced by Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center.
The bill, HF 346, would direct the commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget to distribute 99 percent of a traffic-fine surcharge account to the Peace Officers Standards and Training Board to finance police training.
Currently a $75 surcharge is collected on citations for moving vehicle offenses. A $12 surcharge is collected on parking violations.
One percent of that money goes to help train agents who deal with fish and game issues, while 39 percent goes toward training cops on the beat. The rest goes into the state’s general fund. The Cornish bill would divert 99 percent of that money to police training.
“Part of the bill says that the money has to go to crisis intervention teams dealing with mentally disturbed people and dealing with suicidal people,” Cornish said.
Currently the POST board’s police training fund equates to just $312 per officer statewide, a number that has fallen from well over $400 per officer in non-inflation-adjusted dollars in the late 1980s, Cornish said.
Local police agencies pay the costs of their own training and get reimbursed by the POST board. But because the fund is so small, POST board Executive Director Nathan Gove told the Public Safety and Security Policy and Finance Committee, his agency can reimburse only 8 percent of those costs.
He said the cost for 40-hour crisis intervention training alone in the metro area is roughly $600 per officer for one week’s tuition.
“So we have fallen real short in reimbursing for training,” said Cornish, the Public Safety committee’s chair. If the bill passes, he estimates it would increase the training fund by about $18 million per biennium. . . .
Curious what made him change his mind.
Photo: Rep. Tony Cornish.
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