HB 4249

Amends the Illinois Police Training Act. Provides that the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board shall develop or approve a standard curriculum for certified training programs in the recognition of trauma-informed responses to traumatic events, adverse childhood experiences, and toxic stress among law enforcement. Provides that the training shall include (1) teaching officers how to define and distinguish between acute trauma, chronic trauma, cumulative occupational stress, adverse childhood experiences, and toxic stress; (2) teaching officers to recognize trauma-related responses in themselves and others through behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and physiological indicators of traumatic stress, including how these indicators may present during calls for service and during officer-public interaction; (3) teaching officers the impact of trauma and how occupational trauma exposure, moral injury, burnout, toxic work environments, and cumulative stress affect decision making, communication, performance, and well-being; (4) education on the effects of psychological safety on organizational culture of law enforcement and the immediate work environment; (5) ways to improve psychological safety through trauma-informed communication and interaction skills, such as reducing escalation and engaging peers and other officers in a compassionate, culturally responsive, and nonjudgmental manner; (6) techniques for compassionate, sensitive, and nonjudgmental service delivery, including trauma-responsive communication and de-escalation; (7) procedures for recognizing and responding to traumatically triggering situations and emphasize tools and techniques for achieving situationally optimal outcomes; and (8) comprehensive strategies and tools to manage the impact of trauma, cumulative occupational stress, adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress. Provides that the training must be presented in all full and part-time basic law enforcement academies on or before July 1, 2027. Provides that law enforcement agencies must present the training to all law enforcement officers within 3 years after the effective date of the amendatory Act. Provides that the Board shall evaluate training effectiveness through post-training assessments, ongoing officer feedback, wellness and safety metrics, and annual public reporting.