Law Enforcement Training Blog

Field Training Officer Burn Out: A Real Problem in Many Agencies

Field Training and Evaluation Programs (FTEP) are the foundations that police agencies use to build quality, career police officers. When a recruit officer is teamed up with motivated, knowledgeable field training officers, that recruit stands a very good chance of becoming a motivated, knowledgeable officer also.

The often overlooked benefit of a quality FTEP program is the high morale displayed by the FTOs will rub off on the recruit. Believe it or not, recruits who are exposed to positive, motivated FTOs, are more likely to stay with that agency for their career.

So what happens if the recruit officer is paired with FTOs that have low morale? Recruit officers normally emulate the behaviors displayed by their mentors and FTOs. The recruit wants to fit in and be part of the team. If everyone else is complaining, they are likely to pick up that attitude. A poor attitude translates to an officer who makes bad cases, gets more internal affairs complaints, and is more likely to leave for another agency.

I’ve seen the real benefits of a positive FTEP. Unfortunately, I have also seen the results of a FTEP with bad morale. It ain’t purty, fellas.

There can be a lot of different reasons why FTOs can develop poor morale and bad attitudes. It can come from administrative issues, improper selection of FTOs, or poor leadership in the FTEP itself. However, one issue I have seen time and time again –that never seems to be addressed– is plain old burn-out.

Sometimes a department is hiring so many new officers that an FTO always has a recruit in the car. A lot of times, the best FTOs get the worst recruits. The same FTOs often get recruits that are in remedial training; recruits that need extra help to do the job or find the door.

All FTOs can get burned-out. The best FTOs tend to be abused and do get burned-out.

With burn-out comes poor attitude and low morale. From there, the quality of training declines sharply, and suddenly the best FTOs are providing sub-standard training. All FTOs deserve down-time. Field training officers need time without recruits to clear their heads and re-focus their own police skills.

My own department is having some morale problems in the field training program. Some of it is a leadership issue. However, most of it is they are just plain tired. Most of the FTOs have been hammered for 18+ months with no significant down time between recruits. Most of the training officers are still in the program only because of the extra pay, not because they still want to do it.

If you are having morale problems in your FTEP, take a look at your FTOs. Are they just burned-out? Would a rest let some of them recharge?

To give FTOs a quality rest between recruits, the program may have to increase the number of officers that are assigned to it. I know some police administrators will claim they cannot afford to expand the training program. But, knowing the benefits a quality program can provide, can they afford not to expand the program?

Stay safe!

SureFire E1B Backup Tactical Flashlight for Plainclothes and Off Duty

By Richard Leave a Comment

SureFire manufactures high-performance flashlights and tactical gear that helped revolutionize lighting tools and techniques in law enforcement. Following the company’s tradition of innovation, SureFire introduced the E1B Backup flashlight for officers in plainclothes assignments and off-duty carry.

The E1B is very compact: only 4.4″ long and weighs a mere 3.3 ounces. The flashlight has a reversible clip so it can be carried in a pocket or on a belt with the bezel either up or down depending on your preference. SureFire also designed the E1B with a “melted styling,” meaning there are no knurling or rough edges to snag on clothing when you need it.

Even though the Backup is very compact, it still is extremely powerful. Using a high performance LED, the E1B emits 300 lumens of blinding white light, for up to 1.3 hours on a single lithium 123A battery. Additionally, the E1B flashlight has a secondary light mode of 5 lumens for more mundane tasks like maneuvering through your garage at night. Run time on the low power mode is an outstanding 40 hours.

“We wanted to create a light for our customers that wear a suit every day while making that same product purposeful for a law enforcement officer to wear on their duty belt,” says Matthew Hemenez, Director of Product Management. “The officer could immediately utilize the Backup if a primary light is not available or no longer useful.”

This is the current model of E1B. The original version of the light was also a LED powered light, but it was less efficient. The light output was a mere 80 lumens on high and the low output mode did not run as long. Clearly, the company is taking advantage of all of the modern LED ‘bulbs’ and microprocessor controls of battery output.

There are a variety of good lights you can carry off duty, and this is definitely one of the better ones. I’ve used SureFire products in the past. While nothing is perfect, SureFire tends to make good quality stuff you can depend on.

Stay safe!

Police Suicide: Get Help If You Need It

By Richard 1 Comment

I recently had to deliver a death notification to the mother of a police officer. Her son, an officer with an out-of-state department, had committed suicide.

The mother was devastated. The officer’s wife and daughter were distraught beyond description.

If the job has become too much, if you are having marital problems, if you drink too much, or you have so much debt you think you will never get your head above water, you are not alone. Ask for help. Your partner, sergeant, the chaplain, and your human resources people can all help you find someone to talk to, someone who can help you.

There is no shame in asking for help. Police work is a crappy job. We deal with the debris that the ugliest aspects of humanity produces.

We wade into crime, filth, and evil on a daily basis and try to do the right thing. It is a hard job and it takes its toll on us.

Some sort of psychological debriefing should be required for all officers to attend on a regular basis, but for now, you have to ask for the help. It may seem like a hard thing to do, but it is the most important thing you could possibly do in your life.

Stay safe!

Time to Cut the Police Training Budget: Public Priorities in the Nanny State

By Richard Leave a Comment

Time to jump up on the soapbox for just a minute.

My chief sent out an e-mail to the department the other day. The e-mail was prompted by the pinheads over in the city council. You see, Florida voted on a constitutional amendment recently. I suspect the amendment will be pretty hurtful to a lot of commercial enterprises as it will shift a larger portion of the tax burden onto them, but it will save homeowners a couple hundred dollars a year in the short term. Forget the economic impact, lets talk about the police department’s training budget.

The city has lots of projects going right now. For example, in an effort to rid a section of the community of hookers and drugs, the city is planting trees and putting in brick crosswalks. They are also expanding several of the parks and are funding (at a huge loss) a recycling program so we can be “green.” The city council also bought up a lot of property (at the peak of the real estate boom) that it cannot unload now.

The city council, seeing the tax revenue slip away, went into full panic mode. The council, in an effort to ensure the spending doesn’t exceed revenues, immediately started looking for ways to cut spending. However, the “beautification” projects (in the projects) continue, as does the arguing over how big to make the new “diversity” memorial in one of the parks. Also continuing is the curbside pick-up of all of your recycled goods (again, a huge money loser), so we can declare ourselves as a city that cares about the environment.

Most of you have already skipped ahead and guessed where this is going. Yep, a lot of the cuts are coming out of public safety. Among the cuts: hiring freeze, no overtime, and the elimination of all “non-essential” training.

Non-essential training? No, no…the mandatory diversity training and political correctness is still in place. Nope, we are talking about things like firearms practice for the SWAT team. (Patrol only gets to the range once a year, so they can’t cut that back any more than they already have.) Defensive tactics training for the road officers is cut back. I suspect that recruit training (should they actually hire anyone) would be severely curtailed.

Things like DUI patrols have also been suspended. I wonder what impact that will have on the overtime for the traffic-homicide investigators? Maybe as the DUI fatalities start piling up, they will have to make an exception for them.

So, in addition to doing more with less officers (both from a hiring freeze and a reduction of overtime), we are having to do it with less-trained officers. Yeah, this seems like a good idea.

At least the drug dealers can work from the shady new benches, and the whores have curb-side pick up for their mixed glass recyclables.

New Firearm Site: Guns Holsters and Gear

By Richard Leave a Comment

Based on several conversations I have had with some of my readers here and some people in the firearms industry, I have started a new firearms and gear site at www.GunsHolstersAndGear.com.

The new web site will focus on, that’s right, Guns Holsters and Gear. There will also be general shooting information, self defense articles, and Second Amendment issues.

I hope that everyone will wander over at some point and take a look. The site is still under construction, but I have been adding a lot of content.

There will be some very interesting things that I will be adding to the new site that will compliment this one very well. I can’t give away any of the secrets just yet, but I hope to have most of them implemented by the summer.

Don’t wander too far from this site, though. Blue Sheepdog will still be here. Law enforcement training is a passion of mine, and I will still be posting information, training tips, and officer safety articles here.

Stay safe!

The Passenger Side Approach on a Traffic Stop Saves Another Life: Mine

By Richard Leave a Comment

I am a huge supporter of using the passenger side approach on traffic stops. From the passenger side, I have seen drugs, guns, and other things that I would not have seen from the driver’s side. It is possible that the driver’s side approach has saved my bacon before. However, on Friday night, it saved me from being run over.

It was just another “routine stop”: a minor traffic infraction that was going to garner the driver a written warning. I set up my patrol car with the normal offset to create the (fictional) lane of safety on the driver’s side. However, for a variety of reasons, I used a passenger side approach. During the course of my discussion with the driver, another driver sideswipes my patrol car and almost strikes the detained motorist’s vehicle.

If I had been standing on the driver’s side of the stopped car, I would have been struck, and probably killed.

The suspect vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed, in the same direction I was pointed, so I did not see him prior to the impact. I did not have any warning (revving engine, squealing brakes, etc) prior to the impact. Had I been standing on the driver’s side, I never would have known I was in danger until after I had been hit.

As it turns out, I was unharmed simply, and only, because I used the passenger side approach. Because I was not hurt, I am the center of a few jokes and new nicknames. If I had used the “standard” driver’s side approach, there wouldn’t be any joking going on at my department right now.

So, if you don’t use the passenger side approach, try it out. It is not right for every traffic stop, but it is a very good alternative to the driver’s side approach. Even if you only use it on busy roadways, it can save your hide from passing traffic.

While my wife could use the extra cash to pay off a few bills and get some landscaping done, I am glad she won’t be drawing my term life policy quite yet.

Make sure to take a look at Aaron’s in depth article on traffic stop safety here. He touches on passenger side approaches in addition to a wealth of other considerations when working traffic.

Stay safe!