The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed House Bill 1604 on October 6, 2026. Introduced by state Representative Dave Delloso, the legislation sets a direct requirement: every municipal police officer in Pennsylvania must complete in-service firearms training at least four times per year. That is a minimum of one qualifying session per quarter, with no substitutions.
Beyond the quarterly firearms requirement, the bill adds a second track. Officers must participate in real-world simulation training at least twice annually, according to the legislation. Simulation training is treated separately from the firearms sessions — it does not count toward the four-per-year firearms threshold.
Agencies carry an administrative burden under the new rules. The legislation requires departments to maintain formal documentation of every completed training session for every officer. The bill does not specify a retention period for those records, but the documentation requirement applies across the board, regardless of agency size.
The consequence for noncompliance is immediate. Officers who fail to meet the quarterly firearms training requirements will be placed on administrative leave until they achieve compliance, the bill states. That provision gives the mandate teeth. An officer cannot remain on active duty while behind on training — the gap must be closed before the officer returns to the street.
The legislation frames its purpose around officer preparedness for high-stress, on-duty confrontations, according to the House's release of the bill.
Where HB 1604 Sits Procedurally
The bill passed the Pennsylvania House on October 6, 2026. As of the House passage, the legislation moves to the Pennsylvania Senate for consideration before it can be sent to the governor. No Senate vote date was specified in the House's release.
Representative Delloso introduced the bill as part of what the House characterized as a response to broader national trends in standardizing law enforcement training curricula.
Federal Activity Running in Parallel
Pennsylvania's action lands alongside significant movement at the federal level. On August 5, 2026, the DOJ COPS Office released national standards for de-escalation training under the Law Enforcement De-escalation Training Act, known as LEDTA. Under LEDTA, DOJ funding for de-escalation and crisis response training must be directed exclusively to certified programs, according to the COPS Office.
To support that certification process, the COPS Office launched LEDTAtraining.org in July 2026. The site functions as a central hub for curriculum submission and review. Agencies seeking to use DOJ grant funding for de-escalation training must route their programs through that platform to establish certification eligibility.
At the accreditation level, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers — governed under 6 USC 464 — maintain accreditation through the Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation Board. FLETA reaccredited the FLETC Academy in August 2026. The ATF continues to use FLETC's Glynco, Georgia facility for its Special Agent Basic Training program as of October 2026.
How Texas Moved First
Texas made its own training changes effective September 1, 2026, when the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement amended 37 Tex. Admin. Code §218.3. The amendment added a specific active shooter response requirement: all Texas peace officers must complete at least 16 hours of active shooter response training developed by the ALERRT Center.
The deadline to complete ALERRT Level 1 training is August 31, 2027, according to the amended rule. Texas peace officers also carry a broader continuing education requirement — 40 hours per two-year training unit — which the September 2026 amendment sits alongside rather than replaces.
The Texas changes and Pennsylvania's HB 1604 address different training gaps through different mechanisms. Texas focused on a single threat type — active shooter response — with a named curriculum provider and a fixed statewide deadline. Pennsylvania's approach covers ongoing firearms proficiency broadly, with the quarterly cadence as the core enforcement mechanism and administrative leave as the compliance lever.
Both states moved within weeks of each other in fall 2026, and both actions follow the COPS Office's August release of the LEDTA national standards — a sequence that reflects the national push to put training requirements into enforceable code rather than policy guidance.
For Pennsylvania municipal departments, the practical planning question is scheduling. Four firearms training sessions per year, two simulation sessions per year, and full documentation for each — spread across agencies of varying size and resources — will require coordination well before any Senate passage and gubernatorial signature. Departments with limited ranges or training staff will need to map out their annual calendars early to keep officers off administrative leave and on active status.
