What if you switched from an FTO model to a PTCM (Partner, Teacher, Coach, Mentor) model? What if you thought of the new officer as your partner who needs some coaching, guiding, and developing instead of a “boot”, an “FNG”, a “snot nosed recruit”, or any of the other derogatory terms people use for officers in FTO phase. The reality is that you may need him or her to save your life in the first 15 minutes of your first shift together.  What if you shifted the focus from scoring and evaluating a new officer every day to a focus on teaching, developing, coaching, and mentoring every … [Read more...]

The purpose of using videos of actual events in training should be to provide the opportunity for participants to learn from the experiences of brother and sister officers to best prepare themselves for future calls. It should not be to scare people, or as a gut check or reality check with recruits to “see if they want to be here”.   Video review should not be about the officer in the video unless you are sitting down with that officer to review the video and debrief the incident with them. The debriefing of the video should be about the participants in the training and enhancing their … [Read more...]

In a 2021 blog post titled The revolution in online learning Seth Godin addressed some issues that we need to pay attention to in all of our training, in person and online, in preservice academies and with in-service training:  Not education, learning.Education is a model based on scarcity, compliance and accreditation. It trades time, attention and money for a piece of paper that promises value.But we learn in ways that have little to do with how mass education is structured.If you know how to walk, write, read, type, have a conversation, perform surgery or cook an egg, it’s … [Read more...]

VUCA is a term you hear a lot these days, as it has become common lexicon in many fields. VUCA is an acronym for Volatile Uncertain Complex and Ambiguous.  Law enforcement professionals today live and work in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. On his website, John Black DBA, says, “Policing is complexity within complexity, and police use of force is arguably one of the most complex things to understand.” The question for you as a trainer is, “Are you preparing your people for this VUCA world through your training?”  To prepare the heroic men … [Read more...]

“Take it from a college professor: there's nothing you learn in college that you can't learn elsewhere.” Adam Grant Ph.D. There continues to be a push from groups both inside and outside the law enforcement profession for a university or college degree to be a prerequisite to get hired as a law enforcement officer. I am a fan of education. I am not a fan of law enforcement agencies having a requirement for applicants to have a college or university degree. Education comes in many forms. Formal college and university education is simply one form of education. Agencies need to look at … [Read more...]