CourtSmart

ILACP has a partnership with CourtSmart, a firm consisting primarily of attorneys committed to helping officers understand the legal rules on the street and in court. CourtSmart’s motto is that officers don’t have to know the law as well as attorneys; officers have to know it better -- as officers must act and react at a moment’s notice. Attorneys, meanwhile, can research the law for months, or even years, and later second-guess officers with judges and juries.

This partnership puts ILACP’s endorsement on CourtSmart’s training and encourages police departments throughout the state to consider what CourtSmart offers. The agreement was reached by the ILACP Board of Officers and Dale Anderson, an attorney who works with CourtSmart and has provided training in Illinois for many years.

The other three CourtSmart attorneys besides Anderson are Anthony A. Polse, Steven J. Scheller, and retired Chief Jim Volpe.

The price per officer is only $60-$120 per year (depending on services). ILACP members will receive a 20% percent discount for their department. Make sure to tell CourtSmart you or your department is an ILACP member when signing up so you can receive your discount.

Here is a demo of how it works: How to use CourtSmart by LeoTraining

What CourtSmart Can Do for a Police Department

CourtSmart provides four comprehensive standardized approaches to ongoing learning and to professionalization:

1. Legal source books that are updated every year and available both in hard copy and e-book, which officers can use for educational and research purposes;
   
   
2. Monthly recent case updates that help officers keep up with the changes in the law, particularly constitutional law;
   
   
3. Quizzes on the monthly updates and possibly satisfying the state mandates, with the results of the quizzes available to supervisors selected by the department. If your officers answer seven out of ten questions correctly, they may be eligible to be certified for most legislative mandates, if your local Mobile Training Unit (MTU) approves. ILACP is working on these relationships with the MTUs.
   
   
4. Questions answered by e-mail for officers as CourtSmart’s time allows.

How to Sign Up

If you would like more information about beginning CourtSmart through the Association, contact LeoTraining at [email protected]or call them at 216-536-8210. The website for CourtSmart is www.leotraining.com

Testimonial

“I can’t overemphasize my belief that the CourtSmart program is an invaluable product. The aspect that it can satisfy mandated training requirements is value added. The mandated requirements do not provide the ongoing training that today’s officers need and CourtSmart provides. We are a Chiefs’ organization and we are marketing this to Chiefs to make their lives easier. If I sound a little rah rah on this, I am. I was a Dale Anderson / CourtSmart fan long before mandated training ever came out. From my perspective as a former Deputy Chief, the value and importance of the information provided by Dale reduces liability and improves officer confidence and productivity.”

Ret. DC Ray Cordell, Chairman, ILACP Education and Programs Committee