Other Certification Information

Other Certification Information: You need only to submit a Change in Status Form for those individuals whom you wish to change from full-time to reserve status or vice versa, or from weapons-carrying to unauthorized to carry a weapon, or vice versa, remembering to attach recent firearms qualification scores when changing to a weapons authorized status. In addition, this form may also be used to make any other changes to the officer’s record, such as a change in name, and active vs. inactive status.

Report of Separation (Form F-5) or F-5T – This form must be submitted to the division when a justice officer leaves your agency, by retiring, resigning, dismissal, death or at the Sheriff’s discretion. Please be certain of your decision to separate an officer from your agency, as opposed to a Change in Status Form which may be used to carry his or her certification in a reserve or part-time status. Once we receive the paperwork and it is processed, the decision cannot be reversed by Division staff.

Notification of Criminal Charges/Convictions

If an applicant/officer becomes charged with a criminal offense, Domestic Violence Order or Civil No Contact Order, Rule .0301(a)(7) requires the agency head and the Division to be notified within five working days of the date of service, as well as upon the adjudication of the charges. Failure of an officer to make such notification may be sufficient grounds for action against his certification. Sheriff’s Offices are encouraged to incorporate this requirement into your existing policy and procedures manual.

Notification of Positive Drug Screen Results or Refusals

Each agency shall report all positives and refusals for all applicants and lateral transfers. If an agency conducts in-service drug testing, only positive results should be reported to the Division.

There is a mandated qualification form on which an individual’s qualification records should be recorded.

As with BLET, the combat course of fire does not require a specific course of fire, nor a mandatory scoring system. Rather the firearms instructor is charged with designing combat courses that teach the survival aspects of cover vs. concealment, multiple targets, movement, stress reaction, and other areas deemed necessary for the officer in today’s society.

In developing combat courses, instructors should think of including safe movement with a firearm, shooting from behind cover, reloading exercise, multiple targets, etc. Use of past experiences or prior officer involved shooting offer a means of developing combat courses based on actual events.

Instructors should develop clear objectives as to what the course of fire should accomplish. The course should be designed to incorporate common physical limitations, barriers and work environments associated with actual job responsibilities or duties of the officers, the weapons systems utilized or the geographic work area. Whatever course is taught, a scoring system should be developed by the instructor and the results recorded.

The Instructor should develop a written combat course with objectives, drawings of the course layout, how the course will flow, and how the course will be scored. Individuals are required to pass satisfactorily the combat courses of fire. These scores should be maintained with the other documented scores for the firearms training.

Every firearms instructor has been required in their specialized training to develop such a course, so he/she should have the expertise to develop one suitable to your agency. The course used by an individual instructor should depend upon the level of proficiency of the students and how well they progressed in their basic marksmanship training. Combat courses must be successfully completed once in three attempts.

While BLET requires the use of duty/service ammunition, the Sheriffs’ Commission rules allow for the use of ammunition which is the ballistic equivalent of duty-ammunition.