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!

Some police departments have a standardized process for the selection of officers for every specialized unit. Often, these departments are larger agencies with collective bargaining agreements in place. However, a lot of departments, especially small to medium-sized agencies, do not have a standardized procedure for appointing field training officers.

A standardized process benefits the department in two ways:

1. by ensuring the best candidates are selected, and
2. by enhancing morale as every officer interested in the position can apply, and know the selection process is fair.

Each department must find the process that works for its needs. Many agencies use a process like the one described in this article.

Post the Announcement - A written announcement of the opening of a field training officer position should be posted in the common areas of the department. The use of e-mail to disseminate the announcement is good, but I suggest only supplemental to an actual printed announcement hung in the roll-call room, break rooms, etc.

The announcement should state the job description, eligibility requirements, and compensation. The announcement should require an interested officer to submit an application or letter of interest to the appropriate administrator by a specific date.

Initial Review of Applicants - An initial review of the applications should be made to ensure that every police officer making application for the position meets the minimum requirements. Additionally, information such as prior disciplinary actions against the officer should be noted.

Written Testing - Few departments require a written test for appointment to the field training program. However, a written test can be a valuable tool in identifying which officers have stayed current in case law, department policies, search and seizure, use of force etc. A well written test is also objective, and does not rely on interpretation by evaluators.

Oral Board - An oral interview of the applicants should be done in using a panel or board of evaluators. Use a standard number, and use pre-formatted questions. Each of the evaluators should have a copy of the questions, and instructions on how to score answers.

Glenn F. Kaminsky, in the book The Field Training Concept in Criminal Justice Agencies states that their are three types of questions that should be presented to the candidates during the oral board.

• Questions to determine job knowledge.
• Questions to determine attitude, decision making skills, and communication skills.
• Questions to ascertain the applicant’s reactions to scenarios designed to emulate possible situations a FTO may encounter.

In his book, Kaminsky offers several excellent scenarios to use in an oral board.

Formulation of the Final List - Based on each of the prior steps, each candidate’s application should be scored. The scoring system is largely irrelevant, as long as it is standardized so everyone knows the process beforehand, and all of the applicants are evaluated based on their performance.

Once the scoring is complete, the applicants should be ranked, and the top applicants sent to the appropriate administrator for selection.

This is, of course, just a general outline. If your department does something different, let me hear about it!

Stay safe!

Field training programs have been a successful part of training new officers in many police agencies for more than 25 years. But, how does the model work for training and evaluating officers with prior experience?

Fundamentally, the “job” is the same wherever you may work. The hardest thing to teach a rookie police officer is how to deal with people in a professional and safe manner. Many programs are geared to push the new officer into a lot of contact situations in an effort to develop these skills.

However, most lateral transfers already know how to interact with people. Generally, a lateral police officer’s safety skills and ability to establish rapport or to spot deception are good. Certainly they should be better than a rookie officer fresh out of the academy.

So, are the traditional field training systems doing a disservice to the lateral officer and his or her department? Perhaps.

For an officer with more than two years of experience, perhaps the training should focus on the policies and procedures. The officer is having to overcome all of the procedures that have been second nature to him or her for years. So, instead of working with a clean slate, the FTO will have to erase the old stuff, and then teach the new.

An experienced officer may be unlikely to ask a lot of questions about the new departments procedures for fear of developing a poor reputation. Therefore, the FTO must probe for the officer’s weaknesses and make sure the appropriate training is done.

This does not mean that the program should ignore training and evaluating the officer in areas such as officer safety and investigative skills. We have all known an officer that would do more harm than good when they show up on your call. The last thing you want to do is hire “that guy” and not catch it in the field training when they can still be retrained or weeded out. But, I believe these types of officers will be readily apparent and the focus of the program should be on the policies and procedures.

David Lemmer of the Deerfield, IL Police Department wrote an excellent article on his agency’s experience with field training lateral entry officers.

Overall, Lemmer writes that his department’s experiences were positive but they did discover several pitfalls. For example, Lemmer notes that lateral hires are often resistant to changing to new policies and procedures. He states that the resistance to change is proportional to the number of years of experience the lateral hire has.

Lemmer also said that hiring an officer with more experience than the FTOs can also present a problem. While, ultimately, the extensive experience of the new officer will benefit the department, it can make an odd dynamic in the FTO-trainee relationship. This may hinder the FTO from adequately instructing or evaluating the new hire.

As Lemmer indicates in his work, lateral hires are a valuable resource for departments. They offer an upfront savings in training money and time. More importantly, they bring “instant experience” to the department and can immediately begin to contribute at the same level it might normally take a recruit several years to reach.