Since 2005, POST has produced award-winning self-paced courses on a variety of topics that provide Continuing Professional Training (CPT) hours for law enforcement personnel as well as to meet legislatively-mandated training requirements. To accomplish this, POST has contracted with qualified vendors to assist in the design and development of this training.

Until 2012, staff prepared agenda items for each project individually, which often caused development delays.  In 2012, the Commission approved an agenda item not to exceed $1.8 million in contracts for several courses to be expended over two years.  From those monies, First Aid/CPR/AED, Dispatch Radio Technology, and Vehicle Pursuit Policy self-paced courses were developed. In 2015, the Commission approved an agenda item not to exceed $1.3 million.  From those monies, the Callers in Crisis self-paced course was developed at a cost of $238,000. In 2017, the Commission approved an agenda item for $1.8 million. From those monies, a Courtroom Testimony self-paced course is being developed at a cost of $300,000.  Staff are also working on a self-paced course for racial and cultural awareness.  This course is anticipated to be four hours in length (most other courses are two hours) and will not only have a supervisory track, but will also be customizable to each agency.  Funding for this course will be through legislatively designated monies of $550,000. 

The POST Learning Portal courses are a valuable resource for agencies.  They have proven to be an effective means to obtain relevant and contemporary training that is readily available 24/7 at no cost to agencies. The number of completed courses and the amount of CPT credit awarded has regularly increased across the two-year CPT cycle over the past several cycles. In the CPT cycle for 2017-2018, 524,106 CPT hours were completed on the Learning Portal.

The requested amount will fund a minimum of six courses or tools, and the funds will be encumbered through various contracts over the next two years.

Course topics are determined with input from a variety of sources including legislative mandates, current events, surveys of agencies, and the Learning Technology Resources Advisory Council.  Possible topics for this next two-year period include critical incidents, de-escalation, procedural justice, and legislative mandates. In addition, monies will also be used for updating existing courses, tools, and apps to ensure their accuracy and currency.

Staff recommends that the Commission authorize the Executive Director to enter into contracts with various qualified vendors for the development of Learning Portal courses and tools in an amount not to exceed $1.8 million to be expended over two years.