Missing Opportunities for Training:

I’ve had the luxury of speaking and teaching officers from around the country mainly in topics concerning training as it pertains to use of force as well as training programs. I’ve seen some agencies that have built really effective training programs that cover many aspects of the agency to include policy review, use of force, defensive tactics, leadership, and scenario based training, but I’ve also been introduced to agencies that don’t take advantage of opportunities for training as a philosophy within the agency. We think of most training as an eight hour or more one-time event that takes up time and resources within the agency that is some cases becomes a burden on manpower for agencies that barely meet the minimum staffing, but we also miss many opportunities that take very little time or effort on the part of the department to make a difference in their personnel. I’ve listed some suggestions below on how you could have training opportunities within your own agency.

·        Using briefings to review law enforcement videos that create discussion about use of force or strategies to de-escalate conflict.

·        Create videos explaining a particular topic in detail that can be sent out to officers in the field, but we would suggest keeping them under five minutes.

·        Creating a simple five question policy test that can be e-mailed to officers.

·        Creating an interactive game once a week in briefing with questions pertaining to penal law and department policy, with lunch or some other benefit going to the winner.

·        Having each officer bring a discussion topic or video to the meeting or briefing that will create useful dialogue.

·        Encourage outside training.

·        Have employees review supervisors and how they can improve the training of the department.

·        Encourage employees to create opportunities in their own sector for training and growth.

·        Have employees review themselves and evaluate where they can advance their own skills, which will then create focused based training.

·        Supervisors need to recognize in public the accomplishments of their personnel and encourage further growth.

·        Have personnel from investigations, crime scene, internal affairs, or community standards do a small presentation on what they do and how your people impact the outcome.

·        Have a local advocacy group do a short presentation on programs in your area that provide services to your community.

·        Supervisors providing tools for growth in their personnel by encouraging them to network, mentor others, create ownership in a project, as well as guiding them to make their own decisions.

The examples listed above are just some of the things that can be accomplished within an agency that focus on the training and the overall improvement of their personnel, but you yourself should be thinking outside the box on how your agency misses opportunities to provide training and where those opportunities can be utilized. We’ve trained many officers that said they only reviewed their department policy at the time they were hired and then when they were involved in some type of incident that may have pertained to use of force. You don’t want your officers being in a position of hesitation because they’re not familiar with what they can and cannot do as a result of failing to train them in policy and procedures. The financial costs of not training your personnel can be significant as shown where such cities as New York City paid over $185 million in 2011 alone in response to lawsuits. Between 2002 and 2011, Los Angeles paid more than 1,000 times to resolve lawsuits against their city, which ranged from a high of $12.8 million to $75,000.00. You’ll never be able to completely avoid civil litigation because that is inherently part of law enforcement and dealing with various aspects of the profession, but we can, however, lower the cost through suitable training. Progress cannot be made in respect to this unless all of the participants involved are willing to work together over time to make things better. We completely understand that you may not see the instantaneous results of the training you’ve implemented, but over time you’ll find that growth and training of personnel becomes the norm and part of your department’s philosophy. We know that your efforts can make a transformation and we wish you the best in those endeavors.

Author: Ray Beshirs Master Instructor

Blue Shield Tactical Systems LLC

Blueshieldtactical.com