In 2020, CLEET mental health training to be reviewed by state's department of mental health

Beginning next year, the Oklahoma State Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services will review all of the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training’s mental health education prior to it being offered to officers.

Earlier this year, an investigation by The Frontier found that much of the mental health training offered as continuing education to Oklahoma law enforcement seemingly had little to do with mental health. To remain certified in Oklahoma, every police officer must take 25 hours of continuing education, two hours of which must be related to mental health.

Classes about “report writing,” “strip searches,” and a course on “Radical Islam & the Muslim World” counted for credit for mental health training that law enforcement in Oklahoma is mandated to receive. In the wake of The Frontier’s story in September, in which a CLEET official said that the agency relied on the “honor system” to ensure the training it offered was appropriate, CLEET has revamped the system by which it catalogs mental health training. The “Radical Islam & the Muslim World” class, which was offered by an outside company called the Oklahoma Regional Community Policing Institute, was removed.

CLEET primarily acts as a sort of clearing house when it comes to continuing education. Rather than write its own training, the agency catalogs training from outside companies and then offers it as credit to Oklahoma law enforcement.

Read more: https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/in-2020-states-department-of-mental-health-to-review-training-offered-through-cleet/