The Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission hereby gives notice:
that on February 3, 2011, the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission has issued an order.
On December 2, 2010, the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission, received a petition for a waiver of paragraph 11B-27.013(8)(b), F.A.C., by Robert J. Dudley. The rule requires canine team instructors who wish to become canine team evaluators to successfully train twelve patrol canine teams to FDLE standards and document the training by using form CJSTC-70. The Petitioner has successfully trained 29 patrol canine teams, but only seven of them have achieved certification through FDLE. Many teams trained by Petitioner were certified through the United States Police Canine Association, which is an accepted certification standard in Florida. The Petitioner requested that the canine teams that he trained to certification through the United States Police Canine Association be recognized as the equivalent of FDLE canine team certification in fulfillment of the rule, or, in the alternative, that the seven teams that he trained to FDLE canine team certification would suffice to fulfill the rule requirement of training twelve FDLE certified canine teams for the purposes of obtaining his Canine Team Evaluator status.
Notice of receipt of the petition was published in the Florida Administrative Weekly Vol. 36, No. 50 on December 17, 2010.
On February 3, 2011, at its regularly scheduled business agenda meeting held in Lake Mary, Florida, the Commission found that the Petitioner’s situation is unique. The Petitioner demonstrated that the strict application of the Commission’s rules in this case would violate the principles of fairness because of the low turn-over and small size of the Petitioner’s constituent agencies, which gave him little chance to train the requisite number of teams to achieve FDLE certification. The Commission found that the purposes of the underlying statute, which is to ensure that canine team instructors have sufficient experience in training canine teams prior to becoming canine team evaluators, will be met by granting this waiver request. The Commission granted the Petitioner’s waiver.
A copy of the Order or additional information may be obtained by contacting:
Grace A. Jaye, Assistant General Counsel, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, P. O. Box 1489, Tallahassee, FL 32327, or by telephoning (850)410-7676.