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Roger's Corner - GTI Mission Brief November 1, 2017 By Roger Heaton, GTI Training Coordinator Law Enforcement Training Budgets  Every year, law enforcement agencies go through the same routine. It doesn't matter if you are a municipal, county, state, tribal or federal agency; everyone has to go through the budget process. It makes no difference what budgeting procedure your agency uses, it will end up with salaries making up the largest amount of the budget, followed by the purchase of equipment. Both are very important, but what good is the money spent on salaries and equipment if employees doing the job and using the equipment are not properly trained initially and continually throughout their careers. This brings us to the very important question. When preparing your agencies annual budget, where does training rank in your priority list? If you only spend a few minutes, write a few lines or just add a few dollars to last year's training budget you are doing a disservice to your agency and community. Better trained law enforcement officers typically stay with an agency longer, thereby getting to know the community and will be more likely to represent your agency with a higher level of professionalism and integrity. There is also a sizeable drop in your exposure to civil liability issues with better trained officers. Preparing justification for your annual training budget request is just as important as any other line item in your budget. Do your homework. Spend the necessary time to document your need for the dollars requested. Justify why you want quality, meaningful, and realistic training for your agency. Make it hard for someone to say no. Roger Heaton |