Law enforcement agencies have been facing a lot of flak recently for the rising crime wave. Seems a big part of the blame should instead go to the financial downturn and subsequent cuts to police budgets.

Police agencies across the country have been forced to cut back or eliminate training programs due to massive government budget reductions. Between layoffs and shuttered training programs, how on earth are the men in blue going to get the resources to do their job well?

Now, the recent announcement to put off training for several departments in Illinois looks like an ominous nail in the coffin.

Proper training not only sets the premise for good police work, but also determines whether someone survives in this business. From weapons instruction, proper use of force and crucial crime-scene investigation training to basic legal and ethics training, new trainees are missing out on a lot. Some of these are important to instill the proper code of conduct for officers in stressful and emergency situations.

Lack of proper training may result in officers getting sued, fired or killed. While authorities are probably looking at these cuts as a temporary means to stabilize their budgets, what they are doing is undermining the entire foundation of our safety. They are already affecting police and the services they provide.

Response time to emergency calls will be delayed, and in some cases nonpriority calls may not be answered at all. These may include burglar alarms, motor vehicle thefts and noninjury motor vehicle accidents among others. White-collar crimes or property crimes may be set on the back-burner, while low-level narcotics cases and even fugitive tracking will be severely affected due to the lack of resources.

Even worse, along with the lack of training, the agencies will also have to contend with outdated technology and communications systems, another casualty of the budget reductions. Alarming as these budgets cuts are, there is hardly any positive action being taken to counter them.

The Illinois in-service police officer training centers that face closure have been instrumental in keeping officers up to date on new laws, technologies and the proper methods to deal with differently abled people or those who are mentally ill. To be able to properly identify, approach and communicate with people suffering from mental illness, they need specialized training. This also goes a long way to prevent lawsuits against the officers.

Just when the news is focused on the police actions and public backlash in the U.S., impeding law enforcement training seems to be a poor way of combating these grave issues. The need for better and more advanced training for police officers is high.

Appropriate and timely funding has also been the backbone for various specialized training sessions as well as for preparing part-time police officers for duty. The budget cuts are also going to affect new law enforcement recruits.

Some larger departments are trying to bridge this gap by setting up some in-house training programs that will cover areas like firearms proficiency, sexual assault investigations, domestic violence issues, first aid and active shooter response among others. But these are few and far in between, and the wider issue has to be resolved if the government wants citizens everywhere to be safe.