MORGANTOWN — The state Supreme Court has ruled that Fairmont State University may launch a police academy, over the objections of the state Division of Justice and Community Services.
The court issued the ruling on Thursday in response to an appeal by DJCS and its Law Enforcement Professional Standards Subcommittee seeking to overturn a Marion County Circuit Court ruling issued in April 2018.
FSU President Mirta Martin commented in a Friday release on the ruling, “This decision allows us to train and educate job-ready police officers who can go forth and positively impact communities large and small throughout West Virginia. It truly is a win-win-win situation: Our students will receive an excellent education and entry into an in-demand career; our municipalities will get trained police officers; and the state will retain its most valuable resource – our invaluable homegrown talent.”
FSU spokeswoman Jessica Sharps explained in a phone interview why the university wants to start an academy. Now, the state has only one: the West Virginia State Police Academy. An aspiring officer who wants to attend has to be hired by a local agency.
That agency, and the community that supports it, she said, has to pay for the trainee’s salary and gear during the 16-week course. But many times, the officer will get some experience then move on to a bigger force, leaving the community with no trained officer in return for its investment.
So part of FSU’s goal, she said, is to allow students to come right out with a criminal justice degree and police training so they can go out to communities struggling to be able to afford officers.
In upholding the circuit court’s ruling, the Supreme Court has remanded the case back to LEPS “with instructions that LEPS take those steps necessary to approve Fairmont State’s application.”
Case background
Fairmont State applied to LEPS in February 2016 for approval to create an academy. The academy would be open to criminal justice seniors who’ve completed 1,210 hours of coursework and would require another 805 hours of academy coursework and 405 405 hours of law enforcement coursework during a single semester.
LEPS and the Division of Justice denied the application for several reasons, each of which the circuit court and Supreme Court shot down.
LEPS said there’s already an academy so this one isn’t necessary. The courts responded that the FSU proposal meets all the requirements of state code, so LEPS doesn’t have the authority to judge whether it’s necessary.
LEPS said that state code says a police agency “may” employ an academy trainee, so that means an agency “must” employee a trainee. A trainee who doesn’t already have a job may not land one within the statutory two years and would have to get trained again.
The courts said “may” and “must” are two different things, the Legislature wrote “may” for a reason, and employment is not required to begin training.
LEPS also said that the Legislature established a Law Enforcement Training Fund to support academies, but the fund lacks enough money to support both the State Police academy and FSU’s.
The courts said that the LET fund is intended for programs that train more than 25 students, while FSU’s would be limited to just 20; and the fund exists simply to provide for at least one academy in the state , not to preclude creation of more than one.
Bot courts agreed, “The denial of FSU’s application was arbitrary and capricious. … and there has been no rational basis or substantial evidence provided to demonstrate that approving the program would conflict with existing law.”
Looking ahead
Sharps said that FSU will continue planning while LEPS follows the court order and approves its application. It has preliminary plans in place and staff qualified to offer academy training. It will probably not be until 2021 that they’ll have a program in place.
The release said that Fairmont State Police Chief Matt Swain said he has been working with Jack Clayton, former Fairmont State police chief, for many years on how to help students in the criminal justice program to become more job ready by the time they graduate.
“Fairmont State University will be the only institution in the state to have a police academy,” Swain said. “I am extremely proud to have the opportunity to train the police officers that will have a positive impact on our state for many years to come.”
Clayton, director of Campus Safety, will be named academy commandant. He said, “The future of law enforcement is connected to more enlightened training and enabling students to receive a degree while they work through the program will give them that opportunity. While I’ve had officers who’ve held their GEDs to those with master’s degrees, there are benefits to a college degree in law enforcement.”
With exposure to different cultures, beliefs, and philosophies on a college campus, Clayton said, the academy training and degree together can help police officers to operate more objectively as well as empathetically. It also gives the students who become officers the ability to enter the job with more maturity and social awareness.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
