Ohio Attorney General Calls For New Police Training Standards

WYSO | By Jo Ingles (Ohio Public Radio)

Published December 9, 2015 at 12:39 PM EST

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine presenting proposed training standards for police officers.

Ohio’s Attorney General is calling for new pre-certification standards for peace officer applicants as well as more training for existing police officers. Mike DeWine wants the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission to make sure all incoming academy candidates have a high school diploma or GED; pass a drug screening, a psychological exam, and a polygraph test; are physically fit and have not been convicted of sex offenses. He says these are things that are not uniformly done now.

"When someone is a police officer, there ought to be certain basic things and one basic thing is what is the pre-certification to become a police officer and another basic thing is how many continuing hours are you taking every single year?”

DeWine wants all Ohio police officers to have a minimum of 20 hours of continuing education training each year. Some of these measures would still need legislative approval.