by Marney Simon | Enterprise Staff
The officers of the Plainfield Police Department will continue to utilize an ongoing online training program, thanks to a purchase approved this week by the village board.
On April 11, board members have the okay to spend $5,035 for a three-year commitment to the Police Law Institute, a company that provides monthly up-to-date instruction on state laws.
“This is the service that we use to update our officers on all the applicable case law and statutory law throughout the state of Illinois,” Police Chief John Konopek told the board members. “We’ve been using this service since 1993, so pretty much every officer in our department has been using this their entire career.”
Konopek said the program is one of many valuable resources utilized by the department for continuing training and education of its officers. According to the report submitted to board members, the department regularly uses the program to identify compliance issues for the department, to assure officers are receiving proper training per state requirements.
“We utilize it not only to train our officers but we also use it to meet the state standards, especially under the Police and Community Relations Improvement Act that was passed about a year ago or so. There are several mandatory trainings that are listed in that act that police officers have to accomplish whether it’s on a yearly basis, every three years, or so forth. Most of those requirements fit within this Police Law Institute training.”
That act – Public Act 099-352 – requires all sworn officers in Illinois receive training in several different subject matters. Konopek said the online training provided by the Police Law Institute meets most, if not all, of the standards established by that act.
Konopek also said the department was able to strike a deal to save around $5,000 by entering a three-year contract. The annual fee for the program generally runs $128 per officer, but Plainfield will enter the contract for just $95 per officer with that three-year commitment.
All 53 officers within the Plainfield Police Department will use the system.
“We’ve been using this for 24 years now, it’s been very beneficial,” Konopek said. “It helps keep our officers up to date on case laws.”
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Members of the Plainfield Police Department will continue ongoing training on case law and statutory law though the Police Law Institute. The village board approved a three-year contract with the program on April 17.