Today’s Field Training Officer (FTO) program was born in the 1970s as a result of social and societal changes and demands. Law enforcement agencies were, by in large, “good old boy” systems that had little oversight as to entry level training and retention practices. Many agencies had no standardized training curriculums; rating systems or formal training for would be trainers and raters of post-training academy performance. The lack of oversight and standardization could not stand up to the scrutiny of an external review and was not aligned with society’s demands for more minorities in police service (Doerner, XXXX).
The basic model program for most FTO programs across the U.S. is credited to Dr. Michael Roberts and the San Jose Police Department. The ideal or base program consists of a 14 week evaluation period divided up into 4 week segments with a two week final evaluation. Each phase is designed to incrementally increase responsibilities for the trainee, expose him/her to policy and procedures, increase decision making opportunities, and provides the rater an opportunity to observe the officer’s behaviors as more responsibilities are given to him/her. In the final two week phase, …show more content…
One such area revolves around the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and affirmative action retention practices. The EEOC laws are better served when a department is able to demonstrate they are protecting/supporting protected classes by establishing training standards on performance and competency based behaviors, thus (theoretically) reducing the potential for biases based on race and gender in particular. This does not mean prejudices can be eliminated altogether, but having a standardized and enforced procedure for training does help mitigate these issues; and also stands up to external review should questions be brought to bear on this
The basic model program for most FTO programs across the U.S. is credited to Dr. Michael Roberts and the San Jose Police Department. The ideal or base program consists of a 14 week evaluation period divided up into 4 week segments with a two week final evaluation. Each phase is designed to incrementally increase responsibilities for the trainee, expose him/her to policy and procedures, increase decision making opportunities, and provides the rater an opportunity to observe the officer’s behaviors as more responsibilities are given to him/her. In the final two week phase, …show more content…
One such area revolves around the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and affirmative action retention practices. The EEOC laws are better served when a department is able to demonstrate they are protecting/supporting protected classes by establishing training standards on performance and competency based behaviors, thus (theoretically) reducing the potential for biases based on race and gender in particular. This does not mean prejudices can be eliminated altogether, but having a standardized and enforced procedure for training does help mitigate these issues; and also stands up to external review should questions be brought to bear on this