Boston Police Field Training

For my short paper interview with a police officer, I decided that I wanted to focus on the field training program of a major city with a large, diverse community, so I reached out to the Boston Police Department (BPD). My reason for this was due to the civil strife we saw in Baltimore several weeks ago. Both Baltimore and Boston are similar in population and the size of their departments. In Baltimore, it appears that poor field training may have led to systematic failures and was responsible for the incident involving Freddie Gray. For this research, I was able to get in touch with Kelley O'Connell of the Boston Police Department. She is a Sergeant Detective with the departments Human Trafficking Unit, and has 29 years of experience in the agency. She has also experience serving in Boston's patrol division, the criminal investigation division, and the regional intelligence center for Homeland Security. …show more content…
When asked why BPD doesn't have an official FTO process, she responded that it was due to the Boston Police Patrolman’s Union. For years, the Patrolman’s Union has resisted having any official FTO program implemented unless the city was willing to bargain over it. So even with the department lacking an official FTO program, BPD still operates an on the job training process where new officers work side by side with an experienced officer for three months after completing Bostons police academy. During this field training, the officers get to put their academy training knowledge to use out on the