I often wondered who set up the initial funding plan for law enforcement training in this state. After all, CJSTC trust fund dollars for the most part, goes to fund law enforcement classes put on by community colleges. They get a slice of the pie, probably the majority of it if the truth be told, while paying agency trained instructors $20-$30 an hour to execute agency training requirements. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I mean the agency pays folks to get an instructor certification and they turn around and teach for a community college?

It certainly indicates that there is money left over to pay not only the instructor, but the community college overhead plus some. The end result-- a whole uncountable host of past instructors and a new yearly round of instructors in training. A never ending, extremely, expensive cycle. And as additional instructor certification courses are developed (CMS is a perfect example), a new round of expenditures that benefit only who?

Aside from Basic Recruit, trust fund money spent goes to specialized courses. I know of few agencies who have the staff capability to research, plan, coordinate and execute large scale training for all of its officers, nor the supplemental budgets needed to do it based on operational need. So this means there has to be an operational lag between the time the need is recognized, and the time training is executed. I am sure there are Sheriffs and police departments out there that are saying, “If only.”

Yet, if there is a new legislative mandate to train officers on a procedure or new piece of equipment (Taser, as an example), who else has the expertise and or staff to make the quick turn around mandated by the legislature? The community college, of course.

That’s what makes the current system so ineffectual. Not because community colleges are reaping the benefits, but because agencies who can’t afford the training infrastructure rely on the community college system. It acts as a middle man who absorbs the training dollars without a necessary increase in operational efficiency. But let the agency recognize an operational need that is outside the system, and it takes the community college forever to act and or it contracts with national experts who demand top dollar.

Further, you have an entire FDLE infrastructure designed to monitor the community college system. They examine paper trails to insure money is wisely spent, while at the same time closely interact with folks who have not only ties to the legislature, but to the governor’s office. Independent? I don’t think so.

Those appointed to the Commission are not entirely independent either and give the appearance of payolla when once a quarter they meet at Florida resorts, are wined and dined for a few days four times a year, then determine how trust fund dollars are spent. Who are they appointed by? And who do they hold allegiance to?

There has to be a better way.

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