The proposal would lower drug-use standards so that no marijuana is allowed within a year, and no hard drugs are allowed within three years.
By Paul Hammel, Nebraska Examiner
After Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, recently rejected a proposal that would have relaxed them.
The governor’s request for statistics is not available. It would be interesting to know how many recruits are discouraged by the current standard: no marijuana in the past two years, and no hard drugs in the last five.
According to Brian Jackson, assistant Lincoln Police Chief and chair of the State Police Standards Advisory Council as well as Bryan Tuma, head of the Nebraska Crime Commission in Nebraska, such statistics are not kept.
They also said that it was impossible to determine how many recruits do not apply after learning about Nebraska’s requirements.
Jackson said that it was like trying to figure out how many crimes the police have prevented in a given year.
Tuma said, “That’s a part of the issue,” a former Superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol.
‘Extenuating circumstances’
Tuma suggested that Nebraska could retain its current standards, but allow for “extenuating circumstance” in the case of a recruit with otherwise good character who violated drug-use standards.
The Nebraska Examiner reported first that the governor had rejected the rule change proposal by the police council. This change was presented as a way to increase the number of recruits for law enforcement training. The proposal would lower drug-use standards, requiring that no marijuana be used within a year and no hard drugs within three years.
Nebraska’s drug laws are unusual.
Iowa and Colorado have no statewide drug standards for recruits. This decision is left to the local police officers.
Lawrence Pacheco, Colorado Attorney General’s Office, says that agencies in Colorado still prohibit their officers using marijuana, even though recreational marijuana is legal.
Iowa’s rules prevent recruits with convictions of crimes of “moral Turpitude” from attending a law enforcement academy.
Nebraska’s rules serve as a minimum requirement for admission to the Law Enforcement Training Center of Nebraska in Grand Island. Local agencies may adopt more stringent standards.
Checks with the law enforcement academies operated by the Omaha Police and Sarpy county law enforcement agencies revealed that they adhered to the state standard – no pot in two years and no hard drugs in five years.
National struggles in hiring
At its meeting on August 16, the Nebraska Police Standards Advisory Committee considered the Governor’s decision to reject the drug policy without taking a final decision.
Jackson stated that the issue would be revisited at their next meeting, which will take place on September 20.
Pillen said that he rejected the relaxation of the drug-use standard because he knew the policy was intended to allow more recruits into law enforcement. However, he did not feel it prudent to make such a change if there were no “data” indicating that a significant number of recruits are being disqualified under Nebraska’s existing policy.
He asked officials to collect the data and submit the rule change again, but it appears that this is not going to happen.
Tuma stated that Nebraska and the rest of the country are seeing a shrinking pool of candidates for law enforcement jobs, as well as less interest.
He said that it’s possible the drug abuse of young people could be a part of the issue.
This article was originally published by Nebraska Examiner.
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