Little Hoover Commission Issues Final Report on Law Enforcement Training and Meaningful Police Reform in California

The Little Hoover Commission (LHC), formally known as the Milton Marks “Little Hoover” Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy, is an independent state oversight agency created in 1962. The Commission has broad and independent authority to evaluate the structure, organization, operation and function of every department, agency and executive branch of state government, along with the policies and methods for appropriating and administering funds. In Fall 2020, the LHC launched a study to examine the role of the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) in shaping law enforcement training standards for California’s peace officers.  As part of the review the LHC issued a series of issue briefs and held a series of public hearings to discuss findings from each issue brief. Recently the LHC released their final report Law Enforcement Training: Identifying What Works for Officers and Communities which highlights the need to assess and improve peace officer training as a meaningful step toward law enforcement reform.

There are eleven recommendations that include the need to incorporate research into peace officer training, assess all the academies in CA and compare how effective each model is for training new officers, rightsizing entry level officer training, developing robust on-going education, and creating a more representative POST. The Arc/UCP CA Collaboration has submitted extensive public comment based on the recommendations put forth by the LHC as to how the recommendations can be inclusive of the intellectual and developmental disabilities community. We urge the legislature, the LHC, and all law enforcement agencies to work with the IDD community to assess existing training policies/requirements and in developing future trainings to ensure best practices are met in relation to the unique needs of the IDD community.

The issue briefs and full reports can be found here: https://lhc.ca.gov/report/law-enforcement-training-identifying-what-works-officers-and-communities#schedule

Click HERE to view comments submitted by The Arc/UCP CA Collaboration.

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