News/Articles

PPCT/HFRG Seminar Cancellation

Staff — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:15:21 +0000

To: PPCT/HFRG Instructors
Fr: Tracy Donnelly
Date: 06.24.11
Re: Seminar Cancellation

Dear Friends,

We are always amazed at the loyalty and support that comes from you in the PPCT/HFRG network. A short time ago, Bruce made a difficult decision to host a seminar so that he could personally introduce new material to the organization before he underwent major surgery. The response on such short notice was impressive to say the least. Bruce had a plan; however, there are some things that even Bruce Siddle cannot control.

Bruce’s health has deteriorated very rapidly in the last two weeks. His pain level is almost uncontrollable and his stability is poor at best. He continues to work each day in the office on completing the new manual, but it is clear to everyone how hard he struggles. It is for those reasons that the office staff and family have pushed Bruce into canceling the seminar in August. His health will simply not allow him to participate. The possibility that his surgery may be moved up sooner than expected. His doctors have urged him to undergo the process sooner than planned.

We truly do realize what an inconvenience and burden this is to all of you that planned on attending. It was not a decision made lightly, nor one that we could control. Our current course of action is to postpone the seminar in St. Louis until Bruce is ready. That way, Bruce will have a chance to heal and become accustom to his new prosthetic (His goal is to angle kick through concrete). This will also give us more time to plan a larger event so that each of you benefits as much as possible from attending.

Bruce will continue his work on the new Defensive Tactics manual and it is still on course to be released as promised. The new manual will contain all the new research and stress material. The new supportive power point and video DVD’s will also be available at that time. For the Instructor Trainers seeking recertification, we will also have opportunities for you to do so later this year.

We hope you all can appreciate how difficult it was in making the decision to cancel the event and risk disappointing you, who have shown so much support. We can now only hope that you continue the support you have shown for so many years by praying for Bruce to be tremendously successful in this extreme challenge, and hoping for a speedy recovery from the surgery.

Thank you for your understanding and patience. Please call us if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Tracy Donnelly
Director of Operations
PPCT/HFRG

Combat Human Factors: Triggering the Survival Circuit

Staff — Wed, 04 May 2011 20:20:45 +0000

Written by Bruce Siddle and Kevin Siddle

“Fear makes men forget, and skill that cannot fight, is useless.”
(Phormio of Athens, 429 BC)

In the study of human performance while under stress, one of the most challenging problems has always been how to validate the survival stress response. When studying the physiological and psychological aspects of survival stress performance, researchers have had difficulty with the following:

How can the researcher confirm survival stress has actually been induced?
How can survival stress be induced with consistent reliability?
How can the researcher compare the test subject’s actual performance against his/her perceived performance?

How, then, could these questions be answered, or these requirements be satisfied?

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The Stress Paradox: Understanding How The Body's Innate Programming Can Inhibit the Performance of First Responders

Staff — Wed, 04 May 2011 20:10:28 +0000

Written by Bruce Siddle

A trauma surgeon was recently involved in a case where stress affected his ability to perform a tracheotomy. The case involved a tactical team officer, who was brought to the ED with a gunshot wound that required an emergency tracheotomy. The surgeon knew the officer well, knew the mem- bers of his tactical team and had actually trained with the team on many occasions as their emergency team doctor. Therefore, a special bond existed between them.

The officer’s wounds were serious, and his fellow officers re- fused to leave his side. As the surgeon began what should have been a simple procedure, his vision became distorted and his hands became sweaty and shook, resulting in his inability to firmly grasp the surgical tool. A simple straight-line incision took several attempts, leading to what he described as a “road map” of scars.

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The Impact Of The Sympathetic Nervous System On Use of Force Investigations

Staff — Wed, 04 May 2011 19:46:33 +0000

Written by Bruce Siddle

Researchers have long recognized that stress is responsible for deteriorating cognitive and physical performance. Reports of tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, time distortions, the loss of fine and complex motor skills, unexplainable accidental discharges and bizarre behavior have been well documented.
Why these phenomena occur has remained elusive until recently. Today, we now know that combat performance is connected to Autonomic Nervous System.

This system controls all of the voluntary and involuntary functions of the body, and is divided into parasympathetic and sympathetic systems. The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is dominant during nonstress environments where an individual perceives he/she is safe. The PNS controls a number of critical survival functions, such as visual acuity, cognitive processing, and fine or complex motor skill execution. However, anytime the brain perceives an imminent deadly force threat, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is activated involuntarily, resulting in an immediate discharge of stress hormones.

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What Applegate Said

Staff — Wed, 04 May 2011 19:36:34 +0000

Written by Kevin R. Davis

Rex Applegate. The name conjures up image of some OSS operative cloaked in secrecy being trained for some classified mission behind enemy lines in WWII. The name connotes a lifetime of study in armed and unarmed combatives. The name also is associated in the field of firearms training with point shooting, something that Applegate believed and instructed in until his death. Since Applegate's passing the direct line to his beliefs and teachings has been lost. But fortunately we have a body of work that articulates what the good Colonel believed and instructed. It is to this material that we will quote and to his "disciples" that carry on his work to this day.

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Scientific and Test Data Validating the Isosceles and Single-Hand Point Shoot Techniques

Staff — Wed, 04 May 2011 19:23:17 +0000

Written by Bruce Siddle
February 1998

S. L. A. Marshall observed “there can be no true economy of men’s power on the battlefield unless there is respect for the natural physical limitations of the average individual.” In his 1950’s classic, The Soldier’s Load and the Mobility of a Nation, Marshall became one of the first to document the deteriorating effects of survival stress on combat performance.

Since Marshall’s observation in the 1950, a substantial body of research has developed providing a framework for designing combat skills. Science now understands how a threat perception activates the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which has catastrophic effects on the visual system, fine and complex motor skills, and the ability to cognitively process threats.

Unfortunately, very few combat instructors have taken the time to review the research or consider how the implications affect the design of combat systems. We often find that skill validation is based on nothing more than the new trend or the one which gets the most press. A case in point is the debate over Weaver and the Isosceles Point shooting systems.

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Creating, Structuring & Maintaining an In-Service Training Program

Staff — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:04:35 +0000

Law enforcement is arguably one of the most complex and ever-changing professions in existence, due in no small part to the high expectations that are bestowed upon us by the citizenry we serve. In the court case Canton v. Harris, the United States Supreme Court spelled out its expectations as well with regards to a department’s failure to train its officers. As police officers we are expected to perform our duties in a professional, unbiased and competent manner. Failure to do so can result in incurred civil liability on our part; as well as death or serious injury to us, a fellow officer or a member of the public we have sworn to protect.

A police officer is expected to be an individual who wears many hats: crime-fighter, social worker and traffic enforcer, among many others. In today’s post 9-11 world, our duties and responsibilities are constantly evolving and being re-defined. If an officer fails to stay abreast of these changes and how to deal with them effectively, they can find themselves ‘behind the curve’ very quickly and rendered all but ineffective as a police officer. If we allow that to occur, we have failed in our roles as peacekeepers and protectors. Many of us readily identify ourselves as professionals, but how many of us have actually taken the time to understand what the meaning of ‘profession’ really is?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines a profession as “An occupation, such as law, medicine, or engineering that requires considerable training and specialized study.” If I were to add one word to that definition, it would be ‘ongoing’, as in considerable ongoing training. This is not a job where you can train in the academy, graduate and hit the street, and leave training behind as a thing of the past.

We all talk about training, but what as a department do we actually do about it? And whose responsibility is it to develop and implement it? How do we actually go about it? I will address these issues while drawing from my own personal experience with this very topic, as they relate to the development, implementation and management of my department’s in-service training programs.

Creating

The creation of a dedicated departmental in-service training program usually comes about in the form of a dedicated individual; be it an administrator, trainer or motivated officer, who sees the need and is willing to meet it. To begin with, any in-service training program that is to be effective must have the support of those who make the rules. This not only provides the authority to begin such an undertaking, but also enables the successful implementation and ongoing administration of the program to take place.

To have an effective training program, administrators must ‘buy in’ to the mission as well and be willing to commit the necessary funds and time needed to develop capable and competent instructors. (Unfortunately, funds and time are the two areas in which those involved in the training function often find themselves struggling with.) Supportive administrators facilitate the effective prosecution of the program and affect its overall success or failure.

A successful in-service training program must also have a clear mission; a mission that must be developed, understood and executed by individuals who believe in it and are willing to follow it through. This may seem like a simple task, because after all, the mission is training, right? However, there are many facets that need to be addressed in any training program, including the type and frequency of training and the specific needs of your department. For example: With regards to defensive tactics instruction, what ‘system’ will your department adopt? Does that particular system cover all the bases with regards to survival mindset, hand-to-hand skills, handcuffing, impact weapons, etc? (Hint, none of them ever really does.) And what will you use to fill the gaps? Additionally, how often are refresher blocks going to be scheduled? What about re-certifications? Are you going to certify and subsequently re-certify all officers at the intervals recommended by a particular system? Are you going to certify and re-certify them through that system or through your department? There is usually cost involved with the former and if so, is your department willing to foot the bill?

There are equipment considerations as well. While it is easy to spend thousands of dollars on the newest training gear manufacturers have to offer, that is often unnecessary as a little creativity can go a long way. Some open space, such as a gymnasium or high school wrestling room are all that is needed to practice various defensive tactics techniques and a hand-held body shield can be used to practice empty-handed striking techniques. Training batons can be made from PVC and covered in pipe foam or purchased from any number of equipment manufacturers. Firearms can be ‘roped’ or molded plastic facsimiles can be purchased from several manufacturers for a reasonable price. Training knives can be made from lengths of PVC pipe and capped at one end until actual training knives can be purchased. Any equipment purchased is an investment in the overall success of the program and can be added to the inventory piece by piece over time.

Obviously, too, are the considerations with regards to which personnel will assume the role of instructors and how many to have. These individuals must be motivated, capable and credible, and able to lead by example. Instructors must come from the ranks of officers who, through their own action and deed, have developed themselves into individuals capable of being listened to and followed by fellow officers. Ideally, instructor candidates should be individuals who are ‘self-starters’ and have consistently shown initiative in their day-to-day duties. They should be driven, even-keeled and tempered, passionate but not overzealous. Although it helps, they need not already have had any formal training themselves. They must, however, be individuals capable of being developed into effective and credible instructors (read: ‘open-minded’) and willing to listen.

And with regards to numbers, just how many instructors should you have? The philosophy in my department has evolved into ‘the more the better’. We expanded our program several years ago from two to three instructors to as many as six or seven, for thirty-three sworn officers. Not all of our instructors are cross-trained in defensive tactics and firearms, but many of us are. We are all part-time instructors and assume this role in addition to our full-time duties as patrol officers, investigators or supervisors. The more instructors we employ, the less time and effort it takes to execute a block of instruction to all members of our department. This in turn allows us to provide considerably more training in more areas throughout the year. Additionally, this works to minimize instructor ‘burn out’, which can occur if an officer’s plate gets too full. This is a very real concern in my department, (as it is in many others), as an officer’s quality of instruction can suffer if that officer becomes overwhelmed by the addition of training duties.

Structure

The structure of any training program is equally important. To start with, it is a good idea to designate an individual as a training coordinator. This individual is responsible for overseeing the program from its initial start-up and development through its day –to-day implementation. This can be a very time consuming job and the individual chosen to fill this position must have the ability and willingness to dedicate sufficient time and energy toward the duties required or the program will suffer.

In our department, we have established training coordinators for our firearms and defensive tactics and field-training officer programs. The coordinator of each of these programs oversees a staff of as many as seven or eight instructors/ trainers; and in our case, the coordinators also fulfill the role of trainers themselves.

The position of training coordinator may be full or part-time, depending upon the size of a department, and in smaller departments, the trainer and coordinator may be a one-man-show. The coordinator does not necessarily have to be an instructor himself, but should at least be a highly organized and detail oriented individual with a deep understanding of the training needs of the department.

A good coordinator should be a mentor. He will take the time to get to know his instructional staff, identifying their strengths and weaknesses and will encourage both their professional development and personal growth. He delegates tasks, but stays out of the way and allows his people to do their jobs. He is not the ‘be all, know all’, but an individual who is constantly finding ways to challenge his instructors and helping them to better themselves. It goes without saying (but I’m going to say it anyway) that a training coordinator who is also an instructor can be that much more effective in his position.
The training coordinator must also understand, strongly support and believe in the department’s training mission as well. This is not a position for the ‘ticket puncher’. This individual must be dedicated and capable of seeing the mission through and continue beating the ‘training drum’, particularly during times of apathy where officers resist training efforts. It is the coordinator’s job to develop a vision of what department’s training program should be and to keep the training staff’s efforts on track toward that goal.

Instructors, too, must possess many of the same attributes as the coordinator as they are the ones who carry the flag of the program amongst the troops.

Managing

So you’ve successfully developed and implemented your new in-service training program, but now the real work begins. Many programs of this kind have started strong out of the gate, only to falter on down the track due to lack of proper managing. A training program does not run itself and must be constantly monitored and nurtured to be successful.

As training coordinator of my department’s firearms and defensive tactics program, I oversee an instructional staff of five to six members, all of which have pretty full plates. In addition to my duties of coordinator, I instruct as well. Many of us are supervisors and all but me are on our agency’s multi-jurisdictional crisis response team. As with any agency our size, we are somewhat limited in our manpower resources, so we tend to make the best use of our personnel as possible; thus often creating the issue of our ‘plates being full’.

In an effort to streamline the responsibilities of my instructional staff and to minimize confusion, I developed written job descriptions for the various levels or positions of our training staff. In doing this, I delineated the positions of training coordinator, lead instructor and assistant instructor and spelled out the responsibilities for each position. I also outlined what is expected of each instructor as a general member of our training staff. (Insert link to job description doc here) Additionally, we established a protocol for each block of instruction.

In any one particular block, one instructor is assigned as the lead with the others (the coordinator as well) as assistants. The responsibilities of the lead instructor for this block of instruction include developing the material and creating a lesson plan, which is submitted to the coordinator for approval. The material is then disseminated to the training cadre to ensure we are all on the same page. The lead instructor is also in charge of scheduling arrangements, record keeping and ensuring the block commences and is completed on time. I found that by putting the responsibilities of each of the positions in writing, this limited confusion as to who was responsible for what and gave each member of our staff a clear idea of what is expected of them. The assistant instructors’ jobs are to support the lead instructor in prosecuting the block of instruction and documenting their efforts.
Furthermore, in the interest of consistency, our staff meets at least once every other month for a dedicated training day to go over material for upcoming training blocks and to solidify our training schedule for the year.

And, managing a training program would not be complete without dedicated and detailed record keeping. Although training-record software is available, it is often expensive and thin training budgets often render it cost-prohibitive. Record keeping can just as easily be performed using an Excel spreadsheet or even be hand-written for that matter. What is important is ensuring the material and your efforts are clearly documented, or in essence, the training does not exist. Proper training can minimize exposure to liability, but only through proper documentation can you take full advantage of that protection in a court of law.

This article is by no means exhaustive or the last word with regards to building, implementing and maintaining an in-service training program. I am simply drawing on my experience in this realm, a lot of which was gleaned over the years from trainers much better at this than I. What I did do is take what I have learned and observed during my career, gleaned what was useful and applied it to a training program I am proud of and meets the requirements of our department. It is, however, constantly evolving and a perpetual work in progress. I hope that by sharing this information with you and outlining my own experiences, I have provided you with a good foundation on which to begin.

Walking the Walk: Credibility

Staff — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:03:51 +0000

Credible: Worthy of belief or confidence; trustworthy

Credibility: Something that takes considerable time and effort to achieve, but can be lost in an instant.

In my last article, ‘Sensei versus Instructor’, I touched on credibility as part of an overall set of requirements that an officer must meet in order to become an effective trainer. But what is credibility and how does one earn it?

Just being a truly effective police officer obviously requires a sizeable amount of credibility, both amongst your peers and the general public. The former is often referred to as ‘professional’ credibility and the latter is often referred to as ‘street cred’. But how about credibility as an instructor or field-training officer, or what I refer to as ‘trainer cred’?

Arguably one of the biggest issues that any new law enforcement trainer (whether firearms, defensive tactics, FTO, etc) faces is credibility. Even more so is having credibility within one’s own agency. As a popular saying goes, "You're never a prophet in your own land". But credibility, like respect, must be earned; it cannot be demanded or implied. To have earned credibility amongst your peers is one of the highest honors you can obtain as an instructor. (The second, in my opinion, is having your trainees become more proficient than you due to the quality of your instruction). This is especially true with police officers that are by nature, highly suspicious and often times cynical.

But just how do you earn credibility?

Your cred as an instructor, trainer, etc, begins from the day you first became a police officer and stepped into the building on your first day of work. From how you performed in the academy and your field-training program to the day-to-day activities you undertook in your various roles (patrol, investigations, etc), you were being judged and evaluated by your peers and your supervisors. During this period, through conduct and deed, you were either building your resume’ for future credibility as an instructor, or in some cases, undermining your chances altogether (a point, unfortunately, often lost on a few candidates.)

Once you become ‘ordained’ as a trainer, the first thing your peers (trainees) in your agency check to see is if you ‘walked the walk’ as a patrol officer/ investigator that you are now espousing as a trainer. If so, you’ve got a good foundation on which to build as a trainer. If not, you’ve got a long row to hoe, as most of your message will be lost amidst your questionable character.

As a trainer, you must lead your troops by example. This means being professional in ALL that you do. For example, I admit to being somewhat neurotic when it comes to spelling. If you submit written work, whether it is reports or training bulletins, and the material is rife with spelling and glaring grammatical errors, you erode your own credibility as both an officer and instructor. (And I’m not even going to go into supervisors who sign off on those reports as acceptable). You don’t have to be perfect, but the standard to which you hold yourself and subsequently perform must be set high. Occasional mistakes show you’re genuine –and human-- but consistent mistakes make you appear lazy and unprofessional. You have to inspire your trainees through professionalism to want to listen to what you have to say and to learn what you have to teach. Additionally, you must teach them how the material you present relates to the myriad of situations they will encounter on the street; as well as effective reporting of their actions and how to put those actions into words (articulation). You will probably find that last one to be the hardest of them all.    It also takes a healthy amount of credibility to convince your trainee that they need to know what it is you are trying to teach them, as well as how and why it is important for them to know the material. Simply telling an officer that they must be proficient with their handcuffing techniques, for example, is relatively meaningless unless you also explain to them why it is important in context with their duties.  
Your disciplines aside, (and like I’ve said before) realize there is much more to being a competent and effective trainer than passing the course and showing a few techniques or passing along some information. You must earn credibility and the respect of your peers and trainees through professionalism and dedication on a DAILY basis in everything that you do, not only in the message you wish to impart. Help yourself by finding trainers that inspire you and learn as much as you can from them as you grow.

Being a trainer is akin to being a sergeant, in as much as both are leaders. However, just as the title of sergeant doesn't mean a thing if the individual bearing that title does not practice good leadership skills, the title of trainer means little if that individual does not back it up with competence and credibility.

In closing, I leave you with a story from the legendary Bruce Lee. Lee sits with his master as he pours Bruce a cup of tea. Bruce watches as the cups fills to overflowing, yet the Master continues to pour. When Bruce comments on his observation, the Master explains to Bruce how the teacup represents the mind and the tea, knowledge. The Master chides Bruce to ‘empty his cup’ so he may from time to time refill it with more knowledge. The moral of the story: If you think you already know everything, you have no room for more. Empty your cup.

‘Sensei’ Versus Instructor

Staff — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:02:47 +0000

Sensei: Japanese for ‘teacher’ or ‘mentor’.

Picture this: you’ve just attended and successfully completed an instructor-level course in some type of law enforcement-related field and are now expected to return to your department and impart that knowledge to your fellow officers. But, are you truly ready? Has this 8, 16, 24 or even 40 hour course truly prepared you for the task that lies ahead of you? Do you fully understand the responsibility you now shoulder for the welfare of those you instruct? Do you comprehend the meaning of the phrase “Let no man’s ghost say my training failed him”?

There is much more to being an instructor than just attending a class and gaining the certificate. Let me explain, drawing from my own personal experiences.

I began my career in the martial arts in 1982; and it took me four years, many bumps and bruises and a few broken noses to get my black belt. After attaining the level of first degree black belt, I continued working with my instructor, my ‘sensei’, learning how to perfect my technique and pass along my acquired knowledge to my own students. All told, my journey from white-belt student to third-degree black belt instructor took six dedicated years of training. It had also taken that long for me to be awarded the coveted title of ‘sensei’, or ‘teacher’, by my instructor; a title that I felt I had earned.
Using this journey from white belt to sensei as an example, compare that to the present day process of obtaining the title of law enforcement instructor (notice I did not use the term ‘earned’). Speaking from personal experience, law enforcement instructors can be so ordained after completing training courses of anywhere from eight hours to several weeks in length. (A vast majority of those, however, fall within the eight to forty-hour range.) Many of these individuals who are now instructors have had no previous instructional experience whatsoever.

Now, take a typical law enforcement instructor candidate; particularly one involved in teaching an actual physical skill such as a defensive tactic. This individual is most likely fairly young, hopefully in decent shape (but not always) and may have been involved in athletics during his high school and/ or college years and with any luck, a veteran of the military. He has completed some type of basic police recruit academy training program and has had some post-academy training since graduation. But what type of training has he endured up to that point that has prepared him to become an instructor of something in an area that involves stakes as high as the ones in the law enforcement profession? What has he learned up to that point that made him capable of competently teaching the nuances of a particular defensive tactic technique or firearms tactic to another police officer? What kind of professional or life experience does he possess that he can draw from when putting the material he teaches into context with regards to its ‘real world’ application in a police setting?

I’m not trying to come off here as one of the most ‘high-speed, low-drag’ law enforcement instructors around. I’m far from it. I am simply making some observations based upon a number of years of law enforcement experience; many of which have been spent conducting police-related training.

The point I am trying to make here, through personal observations and experience, is this: There is so much more to being an instructor, a teacher, than just showing someone a particular technique that you yourself learned in just a few hours. After all, even an elementary school teacher must complete several years of specialized training after high school and earn a teaching certificate in order to instruct our children. But how many of those individuals are teaching our children the life and death, liability-ridden skills that a law enforcement instructor is charged with?

Due to our minimal or lack of formal training as law enforcement instructors, we often start out behind the curve compared to our counterparts in the educational community. Because of this ‘sink or swim’ position we often find ourselves in, we must make every effort to maximize our efforts when developing ourselves as instructors. This includes not only learning what to teach, but how to teach and why we are teaching.

We can maximize our efforts in many ways; such as joining professional organizations and taking advantage of the wealth of information and experience their members possess. Others include taking teaching courses at your local community college or university and subscribing to professional publications. Additionally, make it a point to attend training sessions (as a student, not as an instructor!) as often as possible. Not only will you obtain valuable material, but the more you are exposed to other instructors, both good and bad, the better you can become. Ask yourself what you liked or disliked about individual instructors and learn from them and how they presented their material.

Probably the single biggest suggestion I can give, however, is to become as technically competent as you can be in whatever subject matter you are teaching. The old adage that states “Those who can do, do; and those who can’t do, teach” is incredibly inaccurate. Only if you know your material thoroughly; inside and out, forwards and backwards, can you be an effective teacher and earn the credibility and respect of your students. I caution that this does not automatically make you effective, but I argue that you can’t be credible and effective without knowing your stuff. Some try to fake it, but they are eventually found to be frauds.

As a final thought, I leave you with this: In the martial arts, a good sensei will from time to time don the white belt of a beginner and, as a student himself, visit the school of another master. He does this not only out of respect to his counter-part, but to humble himself and to learn. He cannot learn if he is there as a teacher and not a student. As an instructor, you must always continue to learn. Don your ‘white belt’ from time to time and leave your ego at the door. You owe it to your students and to their families, because they are counting on you to give them your best. Earn the title of instructor, don’t just obtain it.

Teach Them Properly, Major

Staff — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:01:24 +0000

In one scene of the 1989 Civil War movie ‘Glory’, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick), inspects the level of readiness of his troops and is witness to trainees undergoing marksmanship training. Col. Shaw watches as one soldier in particular, being cheered on by his fellow trainees, demonstrates his proficiency with the rifle while taking slow and well-aimed shots. Col. Shaw approaches the soldier, comments on his marksmanship ability and urges him to demonstrate once more. As the soldier begins readying his muzzle-loader for his next shot, Col. Shaw begins inducing stress upon the new soldier through forceful commands to load faster and faster and firing a revolver behind the man while he continues to reload and shoot.

The soldier is visibly shaking as he now struggles to perform under stress what he once was able to do smoothly while at ease. In this scene, Col. Shaw brilliantly demonstrates how improper training can create an inflated sense of confidence based on faulty teaching methodology, resulting in one’s confidence exceeding one’s competence. After this demonstration, Col. Shaw approaches the Major conducting the training and tells him: “Teach them properly, Major”.

In a law enforcement context, the field-training officer assumes the role of the Major; and it is the job of that field-training officer to ‘Teach them properly’.

The field-training officer, or ‘FTO’, is arguably the most important cog in the machine that is the first-level training arm of the department. With various field-training philosophies aside, an FTO program is only as good as its trainers, their levels of dedication and belief in their mission.

Newly hired police recruits are first exposed to the law enforcement way of doing things during their time in basic academy classes. However, by the very nature of the mission undertaken by the police academy, the course work these recruits are exposed to during this time is a broad generalization of what they must know with regards to performing their jobs effectively and correctly. It is when the recruit completes basic academy-level training and enters the FTO program that they are really exposed to the culture of their particular department and the ‘nuances’ of the types of policing their particular community requires; basically, ‘our way of doing things’. As a new recruit myself, I vividly remember a grizzly (and large) veteran patrol lieutenant explaining to me that I would first go through the police academy and once I returned, they’d show me how things were ‘really’ done. As arrogant or trite as that may sound, it is the reality of the recruit training process.

A new recruit comes to an agency as a very moldable individual. His or her attitude and outlook toward their co-workers, the department as a whole and the of community which they will serve, is greatly influenced by their experiences with their field-training officers. Additionally, if these recruits are not taught properly, they exit the field-training program with flawed technical competence and a false sense of confidence that can and will continue to perpetuate itself long into their career.
A perfect example lies with the standardized field sobriety tests established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Many officers seem to have forgotten (if they ever learned it at all) that these tests are called ‘standardized’ for a reason. These tests were designed and validated by the courts on a national level. This means that they must be performed in the exact same manner and in the exact same sequence from California to New York and all areas in between for them to be valid in court, every time. However, too often I observe officers not adhering to this strict protocol when administering these exercises in the field. If the FTO himself is not competent in performing this task, then how can they effectively pass that task along to their trainee? If the trainee is then taught improperly and allowed to complete the field-training program, they continue performing their jobs improperly as patrol officers in the field –and even as future FTO’s-- and it erodes professionalism and effectiveness. It should be easy to see how this issue can ‘water-down’ the overall professionalism and effectiveness of an entire department if field-training programs continually turn out improperly trained recruits.

An FTO’s development should be an ongoing endeavor in that they should not limit their experience to those times in which they are assigned a trainee. Due to the nature of their task, an FTO must develop and maintain a broad knowledge base and be able to pass this information along to their charge in an effective manner. This can be a very daunting task. Often, the more areas in which an individual works to excel results in their being mediocre in many and above average in none. However, it is not impossible. One way to accomplish this is to empower the FTO as a trainer department-wide; not limiting their mission to times they are engaged in the field-training process. FTO’s can be utilized on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis to develop and provide in-service training blocks of instruction to the department as a whole. One of the most effective ways to become more knowledgeable in a given subject is to research then disseminate it through a period of instruction (lecture, training bulletins, etc). I’ve done this several times throughout my career on topics ranging from neighborhood watch-type groups to asset seizure and forfeiture, and many in between. None of these topics were among my ‘specialties’ but through this technique, I was able to add valuable knowledge to my repertoire and improve overall as a result.

The position of field-training officer is one of great responsibility and should not be taken lightly. Whereas the police academy may forge the recruit into the basic shape of a police officer, it is the FTO who hones their edge. If an FTO is to be effective, they must realize they are teachers and accept that role; and they must believe in their mission. We often look to our pool of FTO’s and their performance in that capacity as future leaders in our department. An FTO is very much like a sergeant in that they are in a leadership position and must lead; and must do so by good example. This affords the FTO an excellent opportunity to test and develop their leadership and instructional skills at a one-on-one level with a trainee before moving on to a position with a larger span of control, such as that of a sergeant.