S2801 Senate Statement 12/20/21

These floor amendments add a provision to the bill that requires the Attorney General, in consultation with the Commissioner of Human Services, to develop a pilot program to promote and encourage law enforcement officers Statewide to complete training that applies the Crisis Intervention Team model. The program may include support for and coordination between the Police Training Commission in the Division of Criminal Justice in the Department of Law and Public Safety and the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services in the Department of Human Services to increase the frequency of, number of locations, and geographic accessibility to training courses offered that apply the Crisis Intervention Team model.

The floor amendment remove provisions of the bill that would require the Police Training Commission to: 1) annually contract with a crisis intervention training center to assist and support counties in developing and implementing the Crisis Intervention Team model; 2) require every municipal police officer appointed to a police department and force and every county police officer appointed to a police department and force, within five years of the effective date of the bill or by a date determined by the Attorney General, to complete the Crisis Intervention Team model as part of the officer’s in-service training; and 3) to adopt rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of the bill.

The floor amendments clarify that the Police Training Commission may incorporate into an existing training model, rather than develop and implement a new curriculum, a curriculum that applies the Crisis Intervention Team model in order to satisfy provisions of the bill. Furthermore, the floor amendments clarify that the curriculum is to be offered in consultation, rather than collaboration, with a crisis intervention training center.

These floor amendments modify, in part, the definition of crisis intervention training center to mean an entity that has experience in assisting political subdivisions in New Jersey, rather than an entity that is contracted to assist New Jersey counties.

Finally, the floor amendments provide that the bill is to take effect immediately upon adoption, rather than on the first day of the thirteenth month next following the date of enactment.