By Katarina Sostaric (Radio Iowa)

The head of Iowa’s law enforcement training academy says its facilities, processes and training are “unacceptable” and a group of state lawmakers plans to recommend more funding.

Brady Carney became director of the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy in March. On Wednesday, Carney told a statehouse committee there’s a crisis in the recruitment of law enforcement officers, and the state’s training resources have been inadequate.

“Ultimately, when it comes down to brass tacks,” Carney says, “about what is your training product, what is ILEA doing for new hires, and what is it creating and supplying for training content across the state of Iowa — unacceptable.” Carney says the academy lacks proper training facilities.

State Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, co-chairs the study committee. Holt says he went through law enforcement training in another state, and he was shocked to hear about some of the problems with Iowa’s police academy.

Holt says, “It is very clear that we are not properly funding the ILEA and the things that they need to do to train, to have the most professional training possible and to do it as efficiently as possible.”

Carney says the curriculum is being updated, as it was up to two decades old in some cases. He says the academy council worked through a major decertification backlog that meant some police officers continued to work when they should’ve been suspended.