In 1999, Thomas Phelps, who then was serving as a probationary police officer with the East Greenwich, Rhode Island Police Department, attended the Rhode Island Municipal Police Training Academy to become eligible for permanent employment as a police officer. Although his marks at the Municipal Academy generally were very high, he was unable to complete the swimming test successfully. He therefore did not meet the minimum standards promulgated by the Rhode Island Commission on Standards and Training, and was unable to be certified as a police officer.
Notwithstanding Phelps’ lack of aquatic aptitude, East Greenwich was keen to hire him. He was considered an “exemplary employee” and had achieved a measure of notoriety for a previous heroic act. To remedy this problem, East Greenwich looked to the City of Providence’s police academy, which did not require its candidates to pass a swim test to be certified. Accordingly, the East Greenwich Chief of Police sent a request to the Providence Chief of Police asking that the Providence academy accept Phelps to begin recruit training. The Providence academy agreed on the condition that East Greenwich execute a Release and Indemnification Agreement.
Phelps successfully completed the Providence academy training program, served one year as a probationary police officer, and now serves as a regular member of the East Greenwich Police Department. The Commission, though, was unhappy with this situation and filed a lawsuit for a declaratory judgment that Phelps could not serve as a police officer unless he graduated from the Municipal Academy.
The Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the Commission’s position. The Court winnowed through the State’s peace officer statutes, and determined that though the statutes did not so directly state, the direct implication of the laws was that all police officers in the state other than those working for Providence were required to graduate from the Municipal Academy. As the Court put the matter: “We do not believe that the Legislature intended for the Commission to promulgate a set of mandatory, minimum-training standards and supervise a training academy for the use of all municipal police departments except the Providence Police Department, only to allow these municipal police departments to circumvent the standards by sponsoring their probationary police officers at training facilities that may not subscribe to those standards.”
The Court focused a bit on the need for police officers to be able to swim: “In the exercise of its authority, the Commission has determined that a certain level of swimming ability is a basic requirement for all law enforcement officers. Notwithstanding the fact that doubtless many fine police officers, including Phelps himself, may have lacked this particular skill, it is not difficult to understand why, in the Ocean State, the Commission came to this determination. To allow a municipal police department to avoid this requirement by sending its probationary officers to a training program that does not have a swimming component would defeat the purpose of the statute.”
The Court returned the case to a trial court to consider other of Phelps’ claims.
State v. Partington, 847 A.2d 272 (R.I. 2004).