In 1978, Georgia voters decided that the people who provoke police responses by violating the law should help pay for the state's cost of training police.
Voters approved a constitutional amendment that now generates an average of $27 million a year for that purpose, with a 10 percent fee (up to $50) to be imposed on every traffic ticket or criminal fine.
Almost half a billion dollars has been generated by that law. But in recent years, the amount parceled out for police training has dwindled to the point that only about a third of the money collected for the Peace Officer and Prosecutor Training Fund is going toward its intended purpose.
All the money collected goes into the general fund, which can then be used by state lawmakers to fill other gaps in the budget. And the drop in funding comes at a time when local governments' declining tax digests make them less able to compensate for it.
In fiscal 2011, about $10.5 million was appropriated to the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, while the remaining $15 million collected that year was redirected.
That diversion limits local police departments' ability to send officers for specialized training in areas such as criminal investigations, interviewing and interrogation, high-speed pursuits or white-collar crime.
"They are still trying to collect these fees when everyone knows the money is not going to go toward its intended purpose," said Todd Edwards, a lobbyist for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.
A bill that passed the House and under consideration in the Senate would prevent money from being diverted from the police training fund, as well as four other specially designated funds --- the Solid Waste Trust Fund, Hazardous Waste Trust Fund, Indigent Defense Program, and Joshua's Law (drivers education training).
If the fees collected are not used for their intended purpose, then the 10-percent surcharge added to traffic tickets, criminal bonds and fines would be reduced or eliminated, according to HB 811's sponsor, Jay Powell, R-Camilla. The new requirements would be phased in over five years to minimize impact on the state budget.
However, the Senate Appropriations chairman, Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that if the trust funds at issue are taken off the table, important services like education or health care could be affected.
Law enforcement officials in Georgia are tired of being shortchanged, though. So they, along with the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, are leading a push to preserve the funds for their original intent.
The people behind the badge say the need for law enforcement training has never been greater than today, when police are expected to keep up with evolving crime practices, personnel management issues, professional standards, state laws and federal statutes.
Georgians may see a deterioration in the professional standards of police if the officers don't get access to quality training, said Frank Rotondo, executive director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police.
Mistakes made by police can deprive someone of their freedom or take their life, and they can make local governments susceptible to civil lawsuits that siphon money away from other priorities, others say.
Past police mistakes have often been chalked up to a lack of training.
For example:
Atlanta had to train its police officers to interact better with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered residents after a botched 2009 raid at the Atlanta Eagle gay bar cost the city more than $1 million in settlements from patrons who said they were harassed and subjected to excessive force and anti-gay slurs.
Training became an issue for the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department in 2010 after deputies arrested Charles Bannister, who was the county commission chairman at the time, on a drunken driving charge. Subsequent breath and blood tests proved Bannister had no alcohol in his system.
The Canton Police Department will soon conduct emergency management response training and send two criminal investigators to a conference on child abduction cases. Those actions follow a review that exposed critical missteps during the first few days of the investigation into the December 2011 abduction and murder of 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera. Even though police could not have saved the girl, who was killed within two hours of being abducted and sexually assaulted by a maintenance man at her apartment complex, the review revealed a need for a more up-to-date missing person's policy and more training on that policy.
Money appropriated for the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, which provides a majority of police training in Georgia, has tapered off from about $12 million in 2008 to about $10.2 million in fiscal year 2012. The center's total budget including federal grants and other revenue streams is $14.1 million.
Money for locally operated police training academies such as the ones in Cobb, Gwinnett, DeKalb and Atlanta, was nixed entirely in 2008. Those agencies continue to operate academies, however, so they can provide officers with training specific to their departments' needs.
The hardest blow from cutbacks in state funding has fallen small counties and municipalities, which can't afford their own police academies. Many are already struggling financially, but must shoulder a portion of the per diem costs of sending officers to regional academies operated by the Georgia Public Safety Training Center.
The agencies must pay officers' salaries while they are away, and the state does not reimburse local governments for all of the cost for travel, lodging or meals.
In Canton, the police department has a $7,000 annual training budget for its five detectives and 24 patrol officers, according to Assistant Chief Todd Vande Zande. The officers rarely go to the regional public safety training center in Dalton because it primarily provides basic training for new officers, Vande Zande said.
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office offers intermediate and advanced training classes to Canton Police for free. But certain specialized training courses, like missing persons investigations, which might have helped with handling the Rivera case, or white-collar crime investigations, which the department increasingly has to deal with, are too pricey for the Canton department.
"You are just maintaining the status quo, not reaching out and grasping any of the good training that's there because you can't get the funds," Vande Zande said.
LAW TRAINING FUNDS
$430 million Total funds collected from 1987 to 2009.
$359 million Total Funds appropriated from 1987 to 2009.
$71 million Total Funds used for purposes other than police and prosecutor training.
Copyright 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
