(a) Except as provided in subsection (e) of this section, every municipality or other governmental unit of this State employing or intending to employ police officers shall require their attendance at an approved school. Every such municipality, other governmental unit or the University of Delaware or Delaware State University shall require that no person be given or accept an appointment as a police officer unless such person has successfully completed the required police training and education course at an approved school.
(b) Police officers already serving under permanent appointment on July 11, 1969, shall not be compelled to meet this requirement as a condition of:
(1) Tenure;
(2) Continuing employment;
(3) Reemployment; or
(4) Employment by another police agency, provided that the period of suspended services under paragraph (b)(3) or (4) of this section does not exceed 12 months.
Failure of any such police officer to fulfill such requirements as the Council may hereafter establish by regulation shall not make the officer ineligible for promotion to which the officer might otherwise be eligible. The exemptions granted under this subsection shall not be construed to include in-service or continued training requirements which may be established by Council.
(c) All police officers and all persons seeking permanent appointment as a police officer shall undergo training to assist them in identifying symptoms of mental illness, mental disability, and/or physical disability and in responding appropriately to situations involving persons having a mental illness, mental disability, and/or physical disability. The training must include instruction concerning the interaction between police officers and minors that have a mental illness, mental disability and/or physical disability. Additionally, all police officers serving under permanent appointment as of January 1, 2007, must undertake this training by January 1, 2008.
(d) A component of training for all persons enrolled in an approved school must be a course in the detection, prosecution, and prevention of sexual assault. Such evidence-based training must be victim-centered, and trauma-informed.
(e) Nothing contained in this chapter limits the authority, power, or duties of the Secretary of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security under § 8203 of Title 29.