POST Monthly Report

January 2019

Keeping you up to date on POST projects

POST Implements Pilot Procedural Justice Course in the Basic Course

In January 2019, three academies, Santa Rosa Public Safety Training Center, Allan Hancock Law Enforcement Academy, and San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office Academy implemented an eight-hour pilot course for procedural justice. The course includes topics on the four tenets of procedural justice (trust, respect, neutrality, and voice), influences of historical events on relationships between law enforcement and the community, and the concept of implicit bias. The course is based on adult learning principles, and to inspire dialogue and self-actualization in the learning process. The academy recruits expressed an overwhelming enthusiasm for the course material and the learning methodology. Next steps will include a workshop with the pilot academy instructors and subject matter experts to refine the course and complete a student workbook to support the recruits’ learning.

Questions and comments regarding the Pilot Course for Procedural Justice may be directed to Robert Patrick, Law Enforcement Consultant, Training Program Services at (916) 227-3925.

POST Executive Development Course and POST Command College Leverage Technology to Improve Services

Consistent with POST’s 2019 priority to leverage technology for program improvement, both the POST Executive Development Course (EDC) and the POST Command College programs have undergone technological updates for application registration and the program acceptance process. POST’s Training Program Services Bureau and POST Computer Services Bureau staff have converted the application and course registration process for EDC to a 100% online process. Prospective students now complete applications on line, and, once accepted, the POST automated Event Management System sends qualified applicants a registration link 60-days prior to the start of each two-week EDC session. Once a student clicks on the link and accepts the invitation, the system automatically provides all the necessary class information, links for lodging, and access to the EDC student online network for class materials.

The new automated process eliminates hours of staff time emailing and mailing documents to the student, improves communication, and creates a more positive first impression of the program for the law enforcement executives attending the course.

Similar innovations have been applied to the POST Command College program. In addition to an online application process, acceptance to the program requires an interview with a panel of law enforcement executive graduates of Command College. Starting March 2019, the interview process will be conducted online using a Go to Meeting format. Both prospective students and interview panelists will be able to participate in the structured interviews from the comfort of their home office. Leveraging this available technology eliminates the need for participants and panelists to travel to hotels throughout the state for overnight stays to participate in the interviews. The new interview process will be more efficient and cost-effective for all involved.

Questions and comments may be directed to Training Program Services Bureau LEC Joe Sampson or AGPA Jennifer Van.

POST Convenes Workshop For Learning Domains 26, 41, and 43

In January 2019, POST held a workshop attended by Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) from the Regional Fusion Centers, Basic Course, Law Enforcement and Fire Services to review, modify, and draft curriculum for the Basic Course Student Workbooks for Learning Domains 26 (Critical Incidents) and 43 (Terrorism Awareness). The SME’s also evaluated the content of the Student Workbook for Learning Domain 41 (Hazardous Materials Awareness), which was merged into Learning Domain 26.

Content was aligned to support the revised Training and Testing Specifications (TTS’s) that become effective April 1, 2019. Key elements will include content on Suspicious Activity Reporting (S.A.R’s), concepts of Critical Infrastructure Protection, the role of Disaster Service Workers, and terrorist techniques, tactics and procedures (TTP’s).

The SME’s worked in a collaborative environment to accomplish the tasks and learning outcomes.

Questions regarding the Learning Domain workshops may be directed to Senior Law Enforcement Consultant Dan Toomey, Training Programs Services Bureau, at (916) 227-4828. Questions regarding the Student Workbooks may be directed to Staff Services Manager, Cheryl Smith, Basic Training Bureau at (916) 227-0544.

POST Attends California Association of Police Training Officers (CAPTO) Meeting

On January 31, 2019, POST attended the Central Coast chapter of CAPTO for their training managers meeting in Santa Maria. The group of training managers discussed training opportunities in the region, training trends, and recruitment strategies. POST provided an update on the latest POST news, along with a demonstration of the POST Instructor Resume Builder and Instructor Resume Manager program.

For questions regarding POST attendance at the CAPTO meeting, contact Senior Law Enforcement Consultant, Christine Ford at (916) 227-0472.

Training Program Services (TPS) Visits San Diego’s P.E.R.T. Unit

On January 28-29, 2019, TPS visited San Diego’s Psychological Evaluation Response Team (PERT), spending a day with their PERT response unit as well as riding with their Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) unit. The purpose of the ride along was to observe the unit’s response to incidents involving patrol officers and subjects suspected of mental/intellectual disabilities or substance abuse disorders, as well as observing how they deal with the ever-increasing homeless crisis.

Combining mental health professionals with law enforcement first responders, San Diego and partnering agencies are working to get citizens the proper assistance they need, which is leading to reduced incarceration and earlier treatment for those in need. The Homeless Outreach Team is both reactive and proactive in their efforts to help the homeless population. Teaming psychological technicians, law enforcement, and county human services employees together, they all create a responding unit that can meet their needs, and possibly start those in crisis with services, shelter or mental health treatment they require.

For more information regarding P.E.R.T. or H.O.T., please contact Senior Consultant Mike Radford at (916) 227-3925.

Academy Director/Coordinator Course in Garden Grove

On January 29 - February 1, 2019, POST Basic Training Bureau presented the Academy Director/Coordinator Course in Garden Grove, CA. The course was attended by 25 students representing academies throughout the state. This course provided newly-assigned Academy Directors and Coordinators with the requisite skills needed to manage and supervise Basic Academy operations. During the course, presenters and POST staff discussed numerous topics, which included academy management and supervision; budgeting; leadership, ethics and professionalism; instructional planning, quality, and resources; testing and remedial training requirements; legal issues; and safety protocols.

Questions regarding the Academy Director/Coordinator Course may be directed to Senior Law Enforcement Consultant Rosanne Richeal, Basic Training Bureau, at (916) 227-4260.

CA POST Participates in Statewide CTE Industry Sector Advisory Meeting

On January 24, 2019, Senior POST Consultant, Greg Kyritsis, participated in the CA Department of Education’s Career & College Division’s Statewide Industry Sector Advisory Meeting hosted at the Crowne Plaza, LAX. This is a milestone meeting for all Career Technical Education (CTE) program representatives that occurs approximately every five years. Approximately 250 representatives participated in this statewide meeting. The California CTE program is made up of 15 Career Sectors; Law Enforcement falls under the Public Services Sector. The Public Services Sector includes careers in Public Safety, Legal Practices, and Emergency Response. In order to be more effective and relevant in preparing students for CTE career pathways, the Department of Education feels it is essential that stakeholders from business, industry, and education have the opportunity to provide input, guidance, and recommendations at these meetings to assure students are actually receiving career related curriculum and direction to prepare students to be “career ready” for selection in these related career fields. POST Senior Consultant Kyritsis also participated in the previous statewide meeting in 2013, when he and group of law enforcement Subject Matter Experts updated many of the CTE Model Curriculum Standards for the law enforcement pathway. These new updates included a special emphasis on students fully understanding the CA POST selection process for peace officers, due to the profession’s high applicant failure rate. The law enforcement applicant failure rate has been averaging 90% or more statewide. The three primary areas of applicant failure are: academics (reading and writing), overall readiness in physical fitness, and character and behavioral deficiencies, as described in the POST Background (Personal History Statement) and Psychological Evaluation.

Additional Subject Matter Experts (SME) assisting POST at this meeting included Joe Kuhns, Sergeant/LAPD, Vince Plair, Sergeant/LA County Sheriffs, Steve Filson, Sergeant (ret)/San Bernardino PD, Scott Patterson, Captain (ret)/San Bernardino PD, and Keith Clement, PhD/CSU-Fresno, who is also a member of the Community Colleges’ Chancellor’s Committee on Public Safety. The SME group will also be participating in an upcoming meeting to further address how the Department of Education can better promote Public Safety school-based programs (POST Career Pipeline) to encourage local school superintendents to collaborate with local law enforcement agencies to address our profession’s recruitment challenges.

Meeting participants were advised the new CA State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, has placed a major emphasis on expanding CTE programs statewide during his term in hopes of better preparing students for entry into future career pathways. POST staff are hopeful with the new state superintendent’s emphasis on CTE that POST may further expand its partnerships between law enforcement agencies and their local school superintendents to expand the POST Career Pipeline. The POST Career Pipeline concept was developed to assist law enforcement agencies in addressing recruitment challenges, and the high failure rates of applicants. The primary focus of the Career Pipeline is to create a quality applicant pool which meets the demographics of local communities, and help candidates successfully complete the selection process to become peace officers and dispatchers.

Questions and comments on the Career Pipeline may be directed to Training Program Services Bureau LEC Greg Kyritsis at (916) 227-3898.

Management Consulting Projects Bureau (MCPB) Now Requires Electronic Applications For Executive Seminars

Effective January 1, 2019, MCPB will only accept electronic applications for Executive Seminars. The application can be found on POST’s Executive Seminar webpage.

Questions regarding these seminars may be directed to Senior Law Enforcement Consultant, Brad NewMyer, at (916) 227-3893.

Getting Technical with The New Post Entry-Level Test Security Agreement Process

The POST Entry-Level Law Enforcement Test Battery (PELLETB) and the POST Entry-Level Dispatcher Selection Test Battery (Dispatcher) are available to all California law enforcement agencies that have a current, fully executed, test security agreement on file with POST. Starting in February 2019, agencies can download, complete, and/or update the test security agreement and the test designee list via the POST Website. These improvements will eliminate the manual process that required test coordinators of each agency to obtain a wet signature from the head of their agencies, then mail the original, paper copy to POST for a counter signature. The online test security agreement process will reduce the time-consuming efforts in establishing a current test security agreement between POST and California law enforcement agencies. Thus, it will also allow agencies to obtain proctor training, and process test order requests sooner.

Questions regarding the entry-level test security agreements may be directed to Testorders@post.ca.gov.

Training Program Services (TPS) Bureau Conducts “Sexual Assault and Homicide Investigation Course” Workshops

During January 2019, Training Program Services (TPS) Bureau conducted two workshops relevant to the Robert Presley, Institute of Criminal Investigation (ICI) Program. Each workshop focused on contemporizing the curriculum content of the “Sexual Assault Course for Investigators” and “Homicide Investigation Course.”

Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) attending the workshops modernized the curriculum content, design, delivery protocol, and student learning goals and objectives. The updated curriculum will empower class attendees of both courses to achieve the following learning outcomes:

Competently interpret and apply the law to investigations
Recognize, understand and apply the tenets of procedural justice and implicit bias into investigative “best practices”
Optimize evidence-based, scientific investigative methods to support successful case prosecution
Understand the importance and application of forensic medical examination as an investigative resource
Comprehend victim dynamics, advocacy and counter-intuitive behaviors
Analyze offender dynamics and apply successful interrogation techniques
Develop and apply appropriate investigation and interrogation techniques
Foster investigator health and wellness
Apply a spectrum of “promising practices” in case management and investigation

Questions regarding the Robert Presley, Institute of Criminal Investigation (ICI) program, and related workshops may be directed to Charles Evans, Senior Law Enforcement Consultant, Training Programs Services Bureau at (916) 227-3902.

Meet the New POST Employees

Stephen Crawford

Law Enforcement Consultant

Basic Training Bureau

Stephen has over thirty years of law enforcement experience, starting with his career with the U.S. Army, he spent 8 years working with the Military Police, Basic training units, serving as an instructor in the areas of driving, physical fitness and as a Range Master. Stephen then joined the Fresno Police Department and spent the next 22 years, working a variety of assignments throughout the department. He retired on January 3, 2019, as a Police Sergeant, where he spent his last assignment working patrol. Stephen has a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership and the last five years working part-time as a Sherman Block Leadership (SLI Facilitator). Stephen has been assigned to the Basic Training Bureau.

Meagan Catafi

Legislative Liasion/PIO

Executive Office

Meagan Catafi joined POST on January 7, 2019 as the Legislative Liaison/Public Information Officer in the Executive Office. While new to the state system, Meagan is not new to law enforcement, as she spent the last seven years as the Training and Program Manager for the California Police Chiefs’ Association. There, Meagan helped to successfully launch the association’s legislative program bringing the service in-house and establishing their grassroots campaign. She is most proud of her work with the Women Leaders in Law Enforcement Training Symposium; this event has grown to over 1,000 attendees and includes women in law enforcement of all rank and file from across the country. Meagan has a BA in Business Administration.

Veronica Wolfram

Associate Government Program Analyst

Basic Training Bureau

Veronica joins POST after 13 years with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), and California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS). Her state career began with CDCR’s Office of Training and Professional Development. Veronica transferred to CCHCS as the lead Training Analyst for the Staff Development Unit where she was an administrator of the online Learning Management System.

Legislative Update

Status of Current Legislation

The following is Legislation assigned to POST in the 2019-20 session and Legislation of interest to POST and Law Enforcement partners. Note: updates were made on 2/6/2019.

View a detailed report on legislative matters pertaining to law enforcement not assigned to POST.

Bill # and Author	Title and Summary	Status of Bill
AB 54 Assembly Member Ting	Peace officers: video and audio recording: disclosure The California Public Records Act requires that public records, as defined, be available to the public for inspection and made promptly available to any person. Current law generally makes records of investigations conducted by any state or local police agency exempt from these requirements, except that a video or audio recording that relates to a critical incident, as defined, may only be withheld temporarily under specified circumstances. This bill would require the agency to provide the estimated date for the disclosure of the video or audio recording under these circumstances and would allow the agency to withhold the recording for the 45 day period, subject to extensions, as provided by existing law.	Introduced date: 12/3/2018 Status: Referred to Committees on Public Safety and Judiciary 1/17/19.
AB 61 Assembly Member Ting	Gun violence restraining orders. Current law authorizes a court to issue an ex parte gun violence restraining order prohibiting the subject of the petition from having in his or her custody or control, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving, or attempting to purchase or receive, a firearm or ammunition when it is shown that there is a substantial likelihood that the subject of the petition poses a significant danger of harm to himself, herself, or another in the near future by having in his or her custody or control, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm, and that the order is necessary to prevent personal injury to himself, herself, or another, as specified. This bill would similarly authorize, an employer, a coworker, or an employee of a secondary or post secondary school that the person has attended in the last 6 months to file a petition for an ex parte, one-year, or renewed gun violence restraining order.	Introduction Date: 12/3/2019 Status: Referred to Committee on Public Safety
AB 137 Assembly Member Cooper	Public safety officers: investigations and interviews. The bill would specify information an agency may provide if it is investigating voluminous complaints, as defined, regarding the violation of the same rule or policy. The bill would specify, among other things, that the provisions regarding investigations and interrogations, as described above, do not preclude eliminating or adding other policy or rule citations as warranted by the discovery of new information or evidence in the course of an investigation. This bill contains other related provisions.	Introduced date: 12/7/2019 Status: Referred to Committee on Public Safety
AB 2504 Assembly Member Low	Peace officer training: sexual orientation and gender identity. This bill would require the commission to develop and implement a course of training regarding sexual orientation and gender identity minority groups in this state. The bill would require the course to be incorporated into the course or courses of basic training for law enforcement officers and dispatchers and would require the course or courses to include specified topics, including the terminology used to identify and describe sexual orientation and gender identity and how to create an inclusive workplace within law enforcement for sexual orientation and gender identity minorities. The bill would authorize law enforcement officers, administrators, executives, and dispatchers to participate in supplementary training that includes the topics, as specified, in that course of training.	Introduced Date: 2/14/2018 Status: Senate third reading
AB 165 Assembly Member Gabriel	Peace officer training: gun violence restraining orders. Would require the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to develop and implement, on or before January 1, 2021, a course of training regarding gun violence restraining orders. The bill would require the course to be incorporated into the course or courses of basic training for law enforcement officers and dispatchers, on or before January 1, 2021, and would require the course or courses to include specified topics, including the process of filing a petition for gun violence restraining orders and situational training to assist officers in identifying when a gun violence restraining order is appropriate.	Introduced Date: 1/7/2019 Status: Referred to Committee on Public Safety
AB 243 Assembly Member Kamlager-Dove	Implicit bias. Would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would address implicit bias in law enforcement.	Introduced Date: 1/18/2019 Status: from printer.
AB 300 Assembly Member Chu	Hate crime and incident reporting. Would require a law enforcement agency’s informational, incident, and crime reports to include a check box indicating whether the underlying incident in the report is a hate crime or hate incident, as defined. The bill would require a law enforcement agency to complete for each hate crime or hate incident, a supplemental hate crime or hate incident report form that indicates the type of bias motivation and any other identifying information to assist in the prosecution of the hate crime or hate incident.	Introduced Date: 1/29/2019 Status: From printer.
AB 301 Assembly Member Chu	Hate crimes. Would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would implement all of the recommendations set forth in the California State Auditor’s May 2018 report entitled “Hate Crimes in California: Law Enforcement Has Not Adequately Identified, Reported, or Responded to Hate Crimes.”	Introduced Date: 1/29/2019 Status: from printer.
AB 332 Assembly Member Lackey	*Peace officers: training.* Would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to remove unnecessary barriers to the training and employment of a cadre of peace officers that reflects California’s rich diversity.	Introduced Date: 01/31/2019 Status: from printer.
AB 339 Assembly Member Irwin	Gun violence restraining orders: law enforcement procedures. Current law authorizes an immediate family member to petition the court for an ex parte temporary gun violence restraining order. Existing law authorizes a court, after notice and hearing, to issue a gun violence restraining order for a period of one year which may be renewed, as specified. This bill would require each law enforcement agency to develop and adopt written policies and standards regarding the use of gun violence restraining orders.	Introduced Date: 01/31/2019 Status: from printer.

The POST Monthly Report is a monthly status report that informs POST Commissioners and the California law enforcement community of recent progress on POST projects and instructional programs under development, and other information of importance to our mission to continually enhance the professionalism of California law enforcement.

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