The following is an excerpt from PERF’s Transforming Police Recruit Training: 40 Guiding Principles. To learn more about PERF, visit http://www.policeforum.org.

It’s been a longstanding cliché in law enforcement  circles: the first thing a field training officer says to a  new officer in their charge is, “Forget everything they  told you in the academy.” The extent to which this actually takes place is unknown. More than 87% of respondents to PERF’s survey reported that their academy and field training programs align “very” or “somewhat” closely. 

However, when there is a clear disconnect between academy and field training, it can create confusion among new officers: Do they follow what they were taught in the academy, or what their FTO is telling them?  How closely would you say the academy training your officers receive aligns with the field training they receive?

Beyond not knowing how to carry out specific policies and procedures, a disconnect between academy and field training can undermine how new officers embrace and practice the values of the organization. 

Field training may be the most significant factor in educating new officers and setting them on a trajectory for success. Yet, in some agencies, it seems to be treated almost as an afterthought.  Police agencies need to discard their antiquated thinking about field training and embrace a new approach. They need to invest in the rigor and quality of their field training programs and ensure they are building upon, and not undermining,  what is being taught in the academy. 

GUIDING PRINCIPLE #34: 

Academy and field training should be developed in tandem, to help ensure continuity between the two. 

Transitioning from academy to field training needs to be a smooth and seamless process. To promote continuity, academy and field training programs and curricula should be developed in tandem. This will help to ensure that field training builds upon and reinforces what is taught in the academy curriculum.  For agencies that use outside academies to train their recruits, the challenges are even greater. As recommended in Guiding Principle #16 (see page 47), these agencies should put their recruits through a post-academy session – focusing on agency-specific policies, procedures, municipal statutes, and organizational values – before they begin their field training. Then, the field training needs to focus on any gaps in the recruit curriculum and reinforce the agency’s practices and values. 

For example, as academies increasingly emphasize critical thinking and values-based decision-making among recruits (see Guiding Principle #1,  page 30), agencies need to ensure that their field training programs are reinforcing those skills. 

In the New Orleans Police Department, for example, FTOs are trained not to constantly interrupt or correct probationary police officers (unless they are doing something illegal, dangerous, or extremely outside policy). Instead, the FTOs are instructed to take notes on what happened and sit down with the probationary police officer later and ask a series of guiding questions about their actions.  

Every Officer Is an FTO 

While almost every law enforcement agency uses dedicated field training officers, some have adopted the mindset that “every officer is an FTO.” The idea is that while specific officers may have the formal designation and responsibility as an FTO, every officer (at every rank) should see field training and mentoring as part of their role. These officers should focus on matters of agency culture, values, and relationships with the community, and leave the training and evaluation of specific skills to the designated FTO. This mindset can be part of an agency’s commitment to continuous learning and organizational cohesion. The focus of these conversations is not only on policies and procedures but also on values and agency philosophy. “It’s a shift in thinking for the FTO, to be more a mentor and a guide,” said Dr. Deidre Magee, academic director at the NOPD academy. And just as an academy’s recruit training curricula should be guided by research (see Guiding  Principle #18, page 48), so too should an agency’s field training program. Agencies should lead or participate in research into the effectiveness of their field training, and they should monitor what the research says about field training in general. 

GUIDING PRINCIPLE #35: 

Agencies should centralize the management of field training; it should not be left up to individual units to run field training their own way. 

Field training is too important a function to allow for an ad hoc approach to managing the program. Especially in larger agencies, instead of permitting each police district or precinct to oversee field training for their unit, management of field training should be centralized. This helps to ensure consistency and  

quality of field training throughout a department. Because academy and field training must be integrated and build on each other, in many agencies it makes sense to have the academy training unit manage field training as well. Some agencies have adopted the concept of the “recruit training year” in which the academy oversees the entire recruit and field training experience. That way, experienced trainers and curriculum developers can oversee the selection, training, and evaluation of FTOs and ensure that their work complements the training that their probationary police officers received in the academy. 

GUIDING PRINCIPLE #36: 

Agencies should have a formal and rigorous application process to become field training officers and should offer incentives to attract high-performing officers to the role. 

Nearly 87% of the agencies responding to PERF’s survey said they have minimum requirements, such as education, experience, and expertise, to be selected as field training officers. 

However, experience and education do not guarantee success as an FTO. Agencies should identify the critical knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs)  that are needed to effectively perform the FTO role.  Agencies should have a formal application and interview process to ensure that FTO candidates possess those KSAs and that their approach to policing aligns with the agency’s training and operational philosophy. 

Experience is an important component of being an FTO, but seniority alone should not be the deciding factor in selecting FTOs. And officers who have not applied for the position or otherwise expressed interest should not be assigned as regular FTOs.  (Officers may at times have to step into the role on  a temporary basis, but only those who have applied  for and been selected should be given the formal  assignment.)  

To ensure they have a sufficient number of qualified FTOs, agencies should make FTO a desirable role that officers want to apply for. Possible incentives could include a pay differential, a take-home vehicle, or scheduling preferences. 

GUIDING PRINCIPLE #37: 

Agencies should have a comprehensive training program for field training officers that includes periodic refreshers on what is being taught to recruits in the academy. 

Field training is too important a responsibility to assign to personnel who have not been thoroughly vetted and trained. 

Using curriculum development experts in their training units (see Guiding Principle #17, page 48),  agencies should create a comprehensive FTO curriculum, with specific learning objectives. FTOs should be tested to ensure they have mastered the material and understand their roles.  

As part of their training, FTOs should be temporarily detailed to the academy, if possible. Having them teach (or co-teach) a class or assist with other responsibilities is a good way of evaluating how effectively they interact with recruits, provide guidance and instruction, and serve as a mentor. 

Do your agency’s field training officers receive periodic training on changes in academy training?

In addition, FTOs need regular refresher training, including updates to the recruit curriculum taught in the academy. In PERF’s survey, 57% of agencies said their FTOs receive periodic training on changes in the academy instruction, and 37% said they did not. 

Refresher training should focus on updates to agency policies and procedures, as well as any changes in the recruit curriculum. It can also include any research or other updates on promising or best practices in how to perform the FTO role. Providing  FTOs with regular training helps to ensure the seamless integration of academy and field training. The Anne Arundel County (MD) Police Department is one example of an agency that has embraced this concept. Each year, the agency brings its FTOs to the academy for 2 to 3 days of refresher training. 

In total, the Recruit Development Program provides VPD recruits with an extra 28 days of training to complement the instruction received through the JIBC Block Program.  The RDP seeks to do more than simply “fill any gaps” in the JIBC program. It is designed with flexibility in mind. Training topics and content delivery are designed to meet the ever-changing needs of policing in the City of  Vancouver. 

GUIDING PRINCIPLE #38: 

Agencies should establish a formal process for monitoring and evaluating field training officers,  and FTOs should have to requalify every year to remain in that position. 

Just as field training officers are charged with evaluating the recruits under their direction, agencies should have a formal process for monitoring and evaluating FTOs. Part of that process should involve creating performance standards that FTOs can be measured against.  

New FTOs should have to complete a 6- to 12-month probationary period, during which they are reviewed and evaluated by their superiors, peers,  academy staff responsible for field training, and the officers they are training. After completing their probationary period, FTOs should undergo annual evaluations to qualify for remaining in that role. 

Like recruits and probationary police officers,  FTOs should be required to keep journals and other documentation of their own experiences, impressions, and performance, and they should be required to articulate and explain their actions and decisions. 

GUIDING PRINCIPLE #39: 

Agencies need to be systematic and thorough in how field training officers monitor and evaluate recruits during field training. 

Agencies should develop specific objectives that  FTOs use in evaluating the performance of each recruit they train. A core set of objectives should apply to all recruits. In addition, there should be a  customized set of objectives for each recruit, based on their performance in the academy and emphasizing any skills that they may need to work on.  In the Cincinnati Police Department, FTOs are given written guidelines on training content and are presented with student performance objectives in various tactical endeavors, including traffic stops, use of force, and handcuffing. FTOs rate their recruits using a Likert scale for all 13 weeks they are in training.97 The FTOs also complete detailed narratives on aspects of the work that recruits performed well and where improvement may be needed.  

In addition to tactical skills, recruits in field training should practice and be evaluated on their community engagement and communications skills.  The NYPD places a strong emphasis on these activities in its FTO program.  

Some agencies have experimented with a Field  Training Evaluator (FTE), in addition to the FTO.  This is done to guard against the tendency for some  FTOs to become too attached to their recruits and lose objectivity in evaluating their performance.  Once the FTO certified that a recruit is ready to work on their own, the FTE would step in and independently evaluate the recruit against the core requirements the agency has established.  

To support recruit evaluations during field training, agencies should look to use mobile data technology to capture field evaluations on tablets, laptops, or smartphones so they can easily upload that information to training databases. 

GUIDING PRINCIPLE #40: 

After completing their field training, officers should be brought back to the academy to review what they learned during the FTO program and how well it aligns with their instruction in the academy.  

Every officer who completes field training should be brought back to the academy for a thorough debriefing. Officers should be asked to relate their experiences during field training and describe how well they think their academy training prepared them for street patrols. 

Through classroom discussions, focus groups,  and individual interviews, agencies can identify whether their academy and field training are out of alignment or contradict each other in certain areas.  This information is invaluable for pinpointing areas where either academy or field training may need to be adjusted. This review also can help to identify potential knowledge gaps among FTOs, who may not be up to speed with the agency’s current policies or procedures. 

The Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, and the New Orleans Police Department are among the agencies that have instituted this practice. In addition to reviewing specific policies, procedures, and training, these post-field training sessions can be an opportunity for agencies to remind officers why they got into the profession in the first place, to reinforce the agency’s mission and values, and to discuss the career options that lie ahead.  

For example, the New Orleans Police Department brings in deputy or bureau chiefs to discuss career opportunities and paths with their new officers. Training officials say this has been an important strategy for getting officers off on the right foot and for retaining officers over time. 

This publication was supported by the Motorola Solutions Foundation. The points of view  expressed herein are the authors’ and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the  Motorola Solutions Foundation or all Police Executive Research Forum members. 

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