Racial Profiling Training Requirements for Peace Officers

Commissioned peace officers with the authority to make traffic stops must complete a minimum of one hour of racial profiling training per year.

What does this mean for commissioned peace officers and law enforcement agencies

  1. All commissioned peace officers with the authority to enforce motor vehicle/traffic laws, regardless of whether they actually make traffic stops, must attend racial profiling training.
  2. Peace officers who have no authority to make traffic stops are exempt from this training requirement. For example, Missouri Division of Liquor Control Agents have no authority to make traffic stops, therefore, they are not required to complete racial profiling training.
  3. All racial profiling training used to meet this requirement must either be obtained from a licensed/approved provider of continuing education, a training provider that has obtained a POST control number, or from a law enforcement agency that has had their CLEE course preapproved and assigned a control number.
    The specific course formatting requirements can be found on the POST forms page.
  4. The mandated statutory learning objective for racial profiling is as follows: “The training shall promote understanding and respect for racial and cultural differences and the use of effective, non-combative methods for carrying out law enforcement duties in a racially and culturally diverse environment.” The training can be tailored for patrol officers, first-line supervisors, command staff officers or top administrators.
  5. The racial profiling training requirement is part of the CLEE training requirement, not in addition to it. Depending on how the course is constructed, it may also be used to meet the core CLEE requirements of legal studies, interpersonal perspectives, technical studies or skill development. The certificates of completion will reflect this two-part usage.

If there are any questions about these racial profiling training requirements, or any other CLEE training requirements, please contact a representative of the POST Program at (573) 751-3409, or post@dps.mo.gov.