Municipal Police Training Fund Legislation Passes

BOSTON- Today Representative David Linsky (D-Natick) joined his colleagues in the Massachusetts Legislature in passing H.4516, An Act relative to the municipal police training fund.

This legislation will establish a reliable and dedicated funding source for municipal police training across the Commonwealth, similar to that of municipal firefighters, by establishing a $2 surcharge on all rented vehicles, and depositing it into a dedicated fund. This rental surcharge is expected to generate $7.3 million annually for the fund, allowing Municipal Police Training (MPT) to be conducted at appropriate levels.

“Over the past few years, the role of police officers in our country has changed. We are continually asking more and more of the men and women who risk their lives to protect us, without providing the funding they need to ensure adequate training,” said Representative Linsky. “We need a consistent revenue source – not reliant on language passing in the state’s budget – to ensure that our police officers are trained in the ever evolving roles we are assigning to them. Our local police departments need to be able to count on a dedicated revenue stream for training, just like our fire departments.”

The legislature has generally funded MPT through appropriations in the state budget. However, this line item has faced cuts in the last two fiscal years. MPT was cut in the FY18 budget by Governor Baker to $4.7 million, and was conferenced to $4.8 million. At its highest, the MPT was funded at $5.1 million in the FY16 budget.

Municipal Police Training is not an area where our cities and towns can afford unpredictability. However, many cities and towns have had to cut back on police training due to a lack of funding. The establishment of this fund will significantly reduce, or altogether eliminate, the costs cities and towns incur to support municipal police training, therefore serving as an additional source of local aid for every municipality in the Commonwealth.

The fund established by this legislation will allow the Municipal Police Training Committee (MPTC) to provide the following critical services and expanded training:

• First aid/CPR in-service training
• Local option in-service training
• More sessions of first-line supervision training
• Field Training Officer
• Detective based training
• More sexual assault investigator training
• Instructor development training
• LEEDA first-line supervision leadership training
• LEEDA command staff leadership training
• LEEDA executive leadership training
• School Resource Officer training
• RAD Kids training
• Endicott/MPTC Chiefs of Police Command College
• Instructor training courses in firearms, defense tactics, first aid/PR, and health and wellness
• Chiefs of Police training conference
• Fair and impartial policing, procedural justice, and implicit bias training
• Missing and abducted children investigations

The MPTC also needs to make long overdue structural and infrastructural improvements, including the ability to create more distance learning programs and investing in more software and hardware that supports the delivery of training. When fully implemented, the Municipal Police Training Fund will provide ample funding to reduce or altogether eliminate the costs municipalities currently incur for recruit training.

This legislation passed the House with a vote of 145-4, and now goes to the Senate for consideration.

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For More Information: Abigail Silverman (617) 722-2575