Regularly employed

Today the Senate Homeland Security and Emerging Technologies Committee reported SB 449, a bill defining what "regularly employed" means for a police officer. For a number of years, the  Commission on Law Enforcement Standards Act (administered by MCOLES) has had a requirement that a police officer be "regularly employed" but this was not defined. MCOLES worked for several years to come up with a definition of regularly employed settling on a standard of 520 hours annually.  This standard has been scrutinized by smaller departments who rely on part-time officers to provide proper public safety. SB 449 changes that standard to 120 hours annually.  Police officers must still be certified, but this allows more flexibility, particularly for small departments in these tough economic times.