LB 51 is a bill introduced by Senator Steve Lathrop. He is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and this bill is one that he made a committee priority. LB 51 will change the requirements for the certification law enforcement officers and accreditation of law enforcement agencies in Nebraska. It will end the reserve officer program in Nebraska and mandate a number of new police policies concerning the use of force.

The version of the bill advanced by the committee will cause significant problems for small town police departments and rural sheriff departments. I will be proposing an amendment to this bill that will address these problems. It is my hope I can reason with the supporters of this bill, but I will filibuster this bill if it comes to that. It is a solution designed for Lincoln and Omaha that just does not fit in rural Nebraska. 

For some small, rural law enforcement agencies, ending the reserve officer program will mean the difference between a police officer or sheriff’s deputy going on a call all alone or with a partner. I was once a reserve officer myself, so I know how important the reserve officer program is to smaller departments. Oftentimes the position of chaplain in a police or sheriff’s department is held by a reserve officer. These gracious officers are often clergy from the local community who have volunteered to do this important work. They are the ones who are the knock on the door with the notification of a death in the family. Reserve officers are a vital resource for our small rural communities in Western Nebraska. Losing this important capability is totally unacceptable.      

Senator Lathrop’s bill would result in a sixty percent increase in the training required for law enforcement officers (LEOs) to maintain their certification in Nebraska. This is another under-funded mandate from the Legislature on the counties and municipalities. There will be a grant program to cover some of the increased costs, but there is no guarantee that those grants will cover the costs. Some of these additional hours are going to come at the cost of an increase in property taxes which are already much too high.  

As the law is written today, a newly hired LEO has a one year period of time to complete their certification training. For most agencies, this training occurs at the police academy in Grand Island. New officers frequently encounter delays in getting a seat in the next class. In the meantime, departments can use a new LEO to help with a number of things. Properly supervised they can serve as back-up for a veteran officer while they watch and learn. 

LB 51 requires new hires to complete eighty hours of training before they can do anything to support field operations. It even prohibits them from riding in a police vehicle or speaking to the public. Even more challenging, the provisional period is shortened from one year to sixteen weeks. This will make it impossible for small departments to bring a new hire up to speed, and it forces them to have someone on the payroll who is prevented from doing much useful for the department. This is wasteful, and it prevents the new hire from getting a real world understanding of what the job is about.

I support our law enforcement agencies 100 percent. If Lincoln, Omaha, and the State Patrol can live with the provisions of LB 51, that is fine with me. That said, the bill will impose a severe hardship on our small rural law enforcement agencies. It must be changed to accommodate the different conditions faced by our counties and municipalities in the less crowded parts of our state.