14
Police Training Committee Update
NEW JERSEY COPS â– DECEMBER 2014
Training waivers, time constraints,
physical standards and more
At the Dec. 3 meeting of the Police Training
Commission, several important actions were
taken regarding the future of the Commission
operations.
The most important is a strict guideline to
the administration of training waivers by the
Commission. As many of you know, the waiver process from the Class II and alternate
route has been routinely relaxed, bringing
into question why there were regulations in
the first place. It seemed as though at every
meeting a chief would come to the Commission requesting a
waiver for an officer whose paperwork was never properly submitted to Commission staff.
On a motion from West Orange Chief James Abbott and seconded by the PBA, no extension of the time constraints (three
years from the date of graduation) will be granted by the Commission after the June 2015 meeting. This will give chiefs a sixmonth window to audit their officers’ records to make sure they
have properly filed the necessary documents with the Commission, and make sure they have obtained the training
required to be certified as regular officers (BCPO). Please urge
your members and chiefs to make sure they are properly documented, and, as this process is somewhat technical, please
feel free to contact the PBA State Office with any questions.
The next important matter was a request to delay mandatory implementation of pre-admission physical standards for
new recruits. As a result of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against similar standards in Pennsylvania, the
Division of Criminal Justice Director requested that the Commission implement a six-month monitoring period for mandatory implementation of the standards. The Commission
approved the request after a very candid and heartfelt dissertation from the director. I felt assured that he is in full support,
but wants to make sure we have data to support the program in
the event of a lawsuit. It is our opinion that these standards will
save employers resources going forward that can then be used
for fully-certified officers.
Lastly, the PBA presented a resolution to the Commission to
allow any duly-appointed government employee to be granted
leave to attend Commission meetings. This action is especially important to our members. The Commission is mainly comprised of administrators and the diversity of the Commission is
paramount to its success. I have always had the opinion that
there should be more rank-and-file members on the Commission as our members are the men and women executing the
duties of law enforcement day to day. The PBA is grateful to the
full Commission for approving the resolution unanimously. d
Health Benefits Update
Working to cut healthcare costs
During the past month, the State PBA has been especially active in researching options for true cost saving measures
to relieve the astronomical cost of health care in New Jersey.
The PBA hosted a meeting to discuss different healthcare
options. We have to start thinking outside the box with
regards to the delivery of medical care. Our system in New
Jersey is broken, and it seems that no one wants to fix it. I
believe this is greatly due to the brokers in New Jersey who
receive commissions based on the cost.
One of the key concepts that we must adopt is for our
healthcare providers to be required to produce health. An
average primary care physician in New Jersey has 2,500
patients and is financially incentivized to create a fee-for
service-based business. One of our models creates optional
care centers where a doctor would have less than half of that
number of patients. The care centers would have doctors,
nurse practitioners, X-ray facilities, a pharmacy and other
healthcare providers, and members would be incentivized
by the relaxation of copays if they used the centers while still
having the ability to use regular network providers.
Another avenue we are exploring is to remove police and
fire from the State Health Benefits Plan to optimize the cap
waiver for highly dangerous professions under the Affordable
Care Act. This has the potential of saving our members thousands of dollars in excise taxes after 2018.
While these ideas are conceptual right now, please keep
yourself informed, and keep an open mind. The system we
have is broken and these are true cost-saving (not shifting)
measures that can save lives and money for our members in
the future. d