COLUMBUS — In the wake of recent instances involving police and unarmed civilians, Gov. Mike DeWine said he wants to create a permanent solution for funding law enforcement training.
Ohio put aside money in the recent fiscal budget to fund law enforcement operations; however, the state has not found a permanent solution to pay for extra police training.
DeWine pointed to Kentucky as a potential model solution. Kentucky charges an additional 1.8% on certain insurance premiums. That money goes to the state’s police training funding.
“How much of an increase would there be in insurance premiums if we’re talking about a dollar?” said Robert Gitter, a professor of economics at Ohio Wesleyan University. “Not much effect. Talk about $100 — there would be a bigger effect. I think the size of the impact will depend on the size of the tax. And since this is just in the initial discussion phases, we don’t know, is this going to be only auto insurance? Is it also going to cover home insurance, renters insurance, life insurance? So until the details are worked out, it’s really hard to say what the effect is going to be.”
Meanwhile, Jeff Smith, CEO of the Ohio Insurance Agents Association, said these two matters are completely different policy discussions. Insurance agencies have said they believe the state has no business tying together law enforcment training and insurance premiums.
“We believe that the collection of insurance premiums should be they should be used for the purposes of why they’re collected, and that’s to pay claims when someone loses their home in a fire or their business is attacked by a cyber hacker or their business is affected by a flood or a tornado or hurricane, whatever it may be,” Smith said.
Many law enforcment officers see any way of getting additional police training as a positive.
“Training is continuing education, and it’s proven to help officers feel more comfortable and confident in the performance of their duty,” said Brian Steel, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #9. “We’re talking de-escalation officer safety, use of force, society is changing, and the legal updates are constantly changing.”
The question remains, Steel said, of where the money would go if this idea were actually to be discussed and put forth for funding police training in Ohio.
“Is that going to local agencies to train in-house or is that something go to the AG’s office?” Steel said. “And we have to go to them. The reason why this is important, big cities like Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo have their own training.”
The new fiscal budget is providing $40 million to law enforcement over the next two years to help support their duties.
