Nebraska Police Standards Panel to Mull Changing New Officer Qualifications

The Nebraska Police Standards Advisory Council is considering making changes to how it evaluates new law enforcement recruits after the company that creates the test used to determine English competency announced it is raising the score needed for a passing grade.

Nebraska law enforcement agencies have used the Test of Adult Basic Education, also known as TABE, to determine recruits' reading and writing competency for years. The test is designed to show whether recruits understand the English language at an 11th-grade level.

Lancaster County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Drew Bolzer, who is the chair of the Police Standards Advisory Council, said at a May meeting that if the standards were raised to the new scores proposed by Data Recognition Corporation, the company that creates the TABE test, "there would be a large increase in the number of people who do not pass the test," according to the meeting minutes.

The company is increasing the score needed to pass by 40 points on the reading section and 37 points on the language section, which it believes reflects new educational standards.

In a June meeting, Crime Commission Director Mark Stephenson summarized what the increase in scores could do to passing rates based on data collected from 2022 through June 2024.

The current scoring showed recruits passing 79% of the time. With the updated requirements, the overall passing rate would decrease to 41%.

Matthew McCarthy, a former police officer who now teaches criminal justice at Northeast Community College, said at the May meeting there are other tests that can be used instead of TABE, but they are "all problematic in one way or the other."

According to qualifications standards set by the Nebraska Police Standards Advisory Council and followed by all law enforcement agencies in the state except for the Nebraska State Patrol, which is exempt, an applicant must be "a high school graduate, including a homeschooled graduate, or possess a general educational development certificate and be able to read, write and understand the English language at the 11th-grade level."

"The third part is an 'and,'" Bolzer said, meaning that the applicant must either have a high school diploma or GED and take some kind of additional testing to determine an 11th-grade understanding of the English language.

A subcommittee was created to discuss the issue of testing and the verbiage of the rule for academy admissions.

"I feel this subcommittee will look at what is the best current system for defining that," Bolzer said.

The subcommittee met in August and will report what was discussed to the Nebraska Police Standards Advisory Council at a September meeting.

"I do not see a final answer being given, more so the direction they are looking," Bolzer said.

After its June graduation class, the Lincoln Police Department had 334 sworn officers. The department is authorized for 371 positions.

LPD Chief Michon Morrow said failing the TABE test is commonly why recruits do not proceed into the academy.

"I'm glad they are exploring different options," Morrow said.

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