2015 Tennessee Code
Title 38 - Prevention And Detection Of Crime
Chapter 8 - Employment and Training of Police Officers
Part 1 - General Provisions
§ 38-8-111 - In-service training -- Cash supplements.

(a) (1) An eligible local unit of government that requires all police officers to complete an in-service training course each calendar year appropriate to the officer's rank and responsibility and the size and location of the officer's department, of at least forty (40) hours duration at a school certified or recognized by the commission, is entitled to receive a pay supplement of six hundred dollars ($600) for any one (1) officer in any one (1) year, from the commission, to be paid to each officer, in addition to the officer's regular salary. Police officers are eligible for the pay supplement upon successful completion of forty (40) hours of the in-service training.

(2) An officer who has not completed eight (8) months of full-time service during the calendar year is not eligible to receive the salary supplement, except in the case of death of the officer, retirement, or medical disability. Upon submission of proper documentation by an officer, the commission shall include time spent in active military service when calculating the required eight (8) months of full-time service.

(3) Notwithstanding any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary, any police officer who served or serves on active duty in the armed forces of the United States during Operation Enduring Freedom, or any other period of armed conflict prescribed by presidential proclamation or federal law that occurs following the period involving Operation Enduring Freedom, shall receive the cash salary supplement provided pursuant to this section, if such service prevented or prevents such police officer from attending the in-service training program pursuant to this section.

(b) Commission funds made available under subsection (a) to local units shall be received, held and expended in accordance with subsections (a)-(c), including the rules and regulations issued by the commission, and the following specific restrictions:

(1) Funds provided shall be used only as a cash salary supplement to police officers;

(2) Each police officer shall be entitled to receive the state supplement that the officer's qualifications brought to the local unit;

(3) Funds provided shall not be used to supplant existing salaries or as substitutes for normal salary increases periodically due to police officers; and

(4) The cash salary supplement shall be considered as a bonus for the successful completion of training and shall not be considered as salary for subsequent years' determination of supplement or retirement purposes.

(c) No funds shall be expended under subsections (a)-(c) unless such funds are specifically appropriated for the purposes set forth in subsections (a) and (b).

(d) Any municipality or county legislative body may by resolution choose, by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of its entire membership, to establish an in-service training program together with a cash supplement for certified correction officers employed by the municipality or by the county. This program shall be separate from those programs operating pursuant to subsections (a)-(c). Each participating municipality or county shall establish criteria and rules and regulations governing its own program.

(e) If the certification of any police officer is revoked on the grounds that such officer supplied or acquiesced in false information being supplied to the commission regarding the officer's eligibility for certification, then the officer shall be ineligible to receive the supplement authorized by this section. If revocation occurs after the supplement has been paid, the officer shall return to the commission the full amount of the supplement paid. If the officer fails to return the supplement within sixty (60) days of the revocation of the certification, the commission may sue to recover the amount of the supplement in the appropriate circuit court.

(f) (1) All sheriffs shall complete annual in-service training as set forth in this subsection (f) and shall receive cash salary supplements as provided by the commission for police officers. The commission shall apply the terms and conditions of this chapter to any sheriff with the exceptions contained in this subsection (f), and in performing its duties, the commission shall recognize the sheriff is an elected official without any employing agency.

(2) Sheriffs successfully completing the annual training shall receive cash salary supplements in the same manner and under the same conditions as set forth in this part for police officers, except that the commission shall make the funds for salary supplements available to the appropriate counties for payment to sheriffs.

(3) The commission shall issue to any sheriff successfully completing recruit training, or possessing its equivalency, and completing continuing annual training, a sheriff's certificate of compliance in the manner in which it issues police officers' certificates of compliance. A sheriff already holding any certificate of compliance from the commission may request the commission to recognize such sheriff's certification. A sheriff receiving a certificate of compliance has a continuing duty to meet all requirements as set forth in this section and § 8-8-102. In the event a person holding a police officer's certificate of compliance assumes the office of sheriff, the commission shall substitute for the police officer certificate, a sheriff's certificate of compliance.

(g) The Tennessee peace officer standards and training commission is authorized to carry out the provisions of § 8-4-115.