This week our featured guest is John V. Scippa, Director of New Hampshire Police Standards, and Training. Our topics of conversation are about the ongoing in-service training for police officers, the LEACT commission, and the additional programs created to ensure police officers conduct themselves within the confines of laws regarding the use of force.
The mission of the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council is to shape, sustain and strengthen the competency and professionalism of New Hampshire law enforcement in service to our State. Providing high-quality, innovative, credible, and responsive basic, advanced, and specialized training to New Hampshire Police, Correctional, Probation and Parole officers; and, adopting and enforcing reasonable, professional standards in a manner consistent with the law, considerate of the public trust, and committed to fundamental values and the highest ethical standards.
Now more than ever, communities across the country and the law enforcement agencies that serve those communities recognize police officers must have better preparation to intervene whenever necessary to prevent their colleagues from causing harm or a tragedy.
We discussed the LEACT commission (Law Enforcement Accountability, Community and Transparency Commission) to address police accountability and transparency, designed following last summer’s police killing of George Floyd. Director John Scippa said, “we did a lot of work last summer” in identifying areas that needed improvement. Based on the LEACT commission work, his agency provided a summary report to the governor with 47 recommendations for training.
So, in continuous efforts to address police misconduct, Director Scippa is proud to present three initiatives his agency introduced as new training in the academy that was not available before. Cultural diversity and Procedural Justice, ICAT (Integrated Communications and Tactics), and ABLE (Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement) are the new programs now offered in New Hampshire to better prepare new officers in their careers.
To learn more about the department, go to https://www.pstc.nh.gov and to check out the LEACT Commission reports you will find it here https://www.governor.nh.gov/accountability
