Prosecutor teaches law enforcement classes

In an effort to help Nodaway County law enforcement agencies provide their officers continuing training required by the state with limited budget resources, Robert L. Rice, Nodaway County prosecuting attorney, is hosting a series of trainings in November on common legal issues in law enforcement at the Nodaway County Administration Center conference room.

Trainings are free to attend for law enforcement officers.

“Our legal system is perpetually evolving and police officers must go to trainings every year to keep up to date. The trainings cost a lot of money, down time, room and board and mileage. This is a way to train officers at no cost to the agencies. It is common sense idea to help our police agencies and officers receive their mandatory continuing training requirements in order to do their jobs,” Rice said.

In August, Rice submitted an application to the Missouri Department of Public Safety to be able to offer a certified class on legal studies that officers can use as part of their annual continuing training requirements to keep their peace officer license in good standing. The application was approved by the department of public safety for 4.0 hours of legal studies. The training is titled “Drunks, Drugs, PCs and case law update with the Prosecutor” and will cover drunk driving, possession of controlled substances, appellate court case law decisions affecting criminal law and writing effective probable cause statements for criminal prosecution.

The four trainings began November 1 and will continue on November 7, 4 and 22. The classes are from 8 am to noon. The trainings will enable each law enforcement agency to spread out the officers they send to the training so there is still personnel to patrol the streets.

To be approved for a Peace Officer Standardized Training (POST) class, Rice had to submit an application that included his qualifications, education, training and experience, a class attendance policy, a class evaluation plan, the total hours of training in the curriculum area, the objectives of the course, Rice’s lesson plan, Rice’s source documentation to be cited in class, a copy of his proposed power point presentation and a copy of the completion certificate that he would give to each officer following the class.