Rhode Island
Rhode Island’s Police Officers Commission on Standards and Training (POST) sets training standards and may certify municipal training schools; it does not certify individual officers, and no Rhode Island statute or rule found gives any body power to decertify an officer. Since January 1, 2025, the rewritten officers’ bill of rights has used five-member hearing panels with a retired judge as chair, and POST must publish guilty findings with officer names and report them to the National Decertification Index. Since 2023 recruits and in-service trainees must also be trained on cognitive and communication-related disabilities.
- Sources checked
- Part of
- Officer Ledger
At a glance
- Certifying body
- Rhode Island Police Officers Commission on Standards and Training (POST). It is a training-standards body: it controls the State Police academy in Foster to the extent necessary, “may certify the training school of any municipality,” and may authorize graduation certificates (R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-28.2-6; § 42-28.2-10(2)). No statute makes it a certifying body for individual officers. Since January 1, 2025 it also keeps the pool of hearing-panel officers and the hearing records under chapter 42-28.6 (§§ 42-28.6-1.1, 42-28.6-11).
- Statute
- R.I. Gen. Laws chapter 42-28.2 (Police Officers, Commission on Standards and Training) and chapter 42-28.6, renamed in 2024 the Law Enforcement Officers’ Due Process, Accountability, and Transparency Act (formerly the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights). Academy rules: 270-RICR-30-00-2.
- Minimum standards
- The commission sets minimum physical, educational, mental, and moral fitness standards for recruits (height and weight are left to municipalities), and minimum basic training that probationary officers must complete before permanent employment, with school and instructor standards (§ 42-28.2-8). These standards do not apply to the city of Providence. Recruits and in-service trainees must also receive mental health training and training on cognitive and communication-related disabilities (§§ 42-28.2-8.3 to 8.5). Academy entry procedures are in 270-RICR-30-00-2.
- Decertification
- None. No Rhode Island statute or rule found gives POST or any other body power to decertify, revoke, or suspend an officer’s certification; chapters 42-28.2 and 42-28.6 and the academy rules contain none, and the academy rules address only dismissal of recruits. Discipline runs through the employing agency and a hearing committee under chapter 42-28.6. Since January 1, 2025, guilty decisions go to POST and must be “reviewed and considered” on any later request to the commission to approve the officer’s reinstatement, assignment, transfer, or employment (§ 42-28.6-11(d)). No statute says when such an approval request arises.
- Public decertification list
- No decertification list, because there is no decertification. Since January 1, 2025, POST “shall publish” on its website, in machine-readable form, a report of the status of all pending hearings and every decision finding an officer guilty, with the officer’s name, employing agency, and misconduct. Summary punishments of 5 days or less under § 42-28.6-13(I)(b) are excluded; the longer summary punishments under (I)(c) are not (§ 42-28.6-11(g)). POST’s LEODPATA Hearings page names five officers with agency, charges, and status; one decision was issued November 13, 2025, charges were withdrawn in two cases, all charges were dismissed in another (Central Falls, case 2026-1, report dated July 30, 2026), and one is pending deliberation. It is a web page with a redacted decision PDF, not a downloadable dataset. Annual hearing reports to the Governor and legislative leaders are due each December 31 from 2025 (§ 42-28.6-18).
- National Decertification Index
- Reporting required by statute since January 1, 2025. POST “shall report any suspension, decision, order, or action taken indicating guilt” of an officer to the Index, except summary punishments of 5 days or less under § 42-28.6-13(I)(b). Summary punishments of up to 14 working days under (I)(c) are reportable. POST “may” name other indices by regulation and “shall” submit to any future federal index (§ 42-28.6-11(h)). These reports record agency discipline; they are not decertifications. Whether POST has made any report could not be confirmed.
- Continuing training
- No statewide yearly hour minimum found in statute. The commission sets categories of advanced in-service training (§ 42-28.2-8(a)(7)), and topic mandates apply to in-service trainees, including mental health (§ 42-28.2-8.3) and cognitive or communication-related disabilities (§§ 42-28.2-8.4, 8.5).
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Officers’ bill of rights rewritten: new hearing panels, longer summary punishments, published guilty findings, and Index reporting
Hearing committees change from 3 officers (one picked by each side) to 5 members: a retired judge as chair and an attorney, both appointed by the Chief Justice, and 3 officers drawn at random by POST from a trained, certified pool. Officers from the accused’s or the charging agency are excluded, and a majority decides. Summary punishment for minor violations rises from 2 to up to 5 working days. Where no criminal charges are pending, up to 14 working days without pay is allowed after a formal complaint for deadly force in violation of department rules, excessive force or force causing serious physical injury or death, felonious conduct including felony domestic violence, or dishonesty in crime reporting and investigation or in misconduct investigations. Appeals of summary punishment go to the grievance process. Chiefs may release video under the public records law and make public statements about incidents; the old bar on public statements is struck. Guilty decisions go to POST, which keeps all hearing records, must publish pending hearings and guilty findings with officer names, and must report findings to the National Decertification Index. Bargaining agreements entered into or made effective 30 days after passage may not contravene the exclusive-remedy section.
For officers: A guilty finding against you, other than a summary punishment of 5 days or less, is published with your name and reported to the National Decertification Index.
Mental health training may use crisis intervention team or IACP-recognized programs
The mandatory mental health training for recruits and in-service trainees may now be met by an International Certified Crisis Intervention Team program or other IACP-recognized best-practice training, as well as Mental Health First Aid. Officers who are certified trainers may present. The wording shifts to “recognizing the possible existence of a mental disorder.” The 2016 Mental Health First Aid mandate predates the act.
For officers: Crisis intervention team training can satisfy the mental health training requirement.
Mandatory training on cognitive and communication-related disabilities
The commission must publish mandatory training standards for officers dealing with victims, witnesses, or suspects who have cognitive or communication-related disabilities, covering recognition, community resources, de-escalation, and referrals. The training must be in all recruit and in-service curricula and is part of the required certification process. Newly commissioned detectives must take a separate investigations course. Presenters must include practitioners and people with these disabilities. Both sections are new.
For officers: Recruit and in-service training must include working with people who have cognitive or communication disabilities; new detectives take a separate course.
Not yet in force and pending
No signed law is waiting to take effect. These bills were not enacted, and none appears among the 2023 to 2026 public laws: H 7211 and S 2608 (2026, barring masks and requiring visible identification), H 6181 and S 811 (2023, an officer screening, discipline, and decertification board), H 7312 and S 2215 (2024, expanding POST authority), H 8272 and S 2157 (2026, a law enforcement sexual misconduct offense), H 5442 (2023, internal affairs reports as public records), and S 2321 (2026, an equivalent training certification program). The committee dates for these bills were not re-checked, because the bill-status site is a search form.
The POST hearings page was read directly on October 20, 2026. The case details above are from the page as last updated July 30, 2026.
Checked and unchanged
- R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 42-28.2-3, -6, -8, and -10 (commission, academy, standards, certificates): no amendment since 2008 to 2009 per the section history notes.
- 270-RICR-30-00-2 (Municipal Police Academy rules): technical revision effective September 17, 2013, with no later filing.
- Not counted, technical: P.L. 2025, ch. 427, § 29 changed “subtitle” to “chapter” twice in § 42-28.6-14. P.L. 2024, ch. 74 and ch. 110 changed only airport-corporation titles in § 42-28.6-1.
Last updated October 20, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “Rhode Island officer certification: Officer Ledger,” uscli.org/officer-certification-tracker/rhode-island (last updated October 20, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.