Good Cops Know The Value of Training

As a fellow 'Fed' I applaud John for showing the lengths some officers will go to train. But it also raises a number of disturbing questions, none of which John can be faulted for.

Given, especially right after the 9-11 attacks but also prior, the sudden availability of 'Federal Assistance in training' funds has anyone loked at the training roster fo these sessions. It has become an almost automatic, if not institutional, response to send the same people over and over again to training sessions and, when they come back, have the training that the agency just paid for and needs wind up in File 13. This 'training group' clique mentality is killing the law enforcement profession and severely, if not fatally, depriving the officers on the street of needed training that keeps winding up in the hands of a few 'glory boy's' as oppossed to the officers who could actually use it. It also impacts on retention.

Take a roster and put it on a matrix of personnel vs. training opportunities and start seeing where the training money and opportunities are going. You can bet that a lot of officers, who are usually the first ones to ask about outside training, have already done this. When they see that the training is being hogged by only a select few, and the training is made a requirement for promotion, well, the writing is on the wall. Lack of training is a prime reason that most of these officers, usually at the 2 to 5 year mark, leave their agency.

If they can't improve their skills by training or get the training needed for advancement due to internal politics then they have every right to ask themselves the most obvious question of all: Why am I bothering to stay at an agency that doesn't care about my training or desire to improve my skills ?

A more fundamental question is also in the asking. If the money for all this training is available, why is it only being spent on certain individuals ? Is the training fund a Chief's personal 'reward fund' to be used as a political loyalty tool for supporting the Chief's policies ? As many agencys and departments have found to their embarassment, these funds are audited by the Fed's from time to time. And mis-using, mis-directing or using the funds beyond the scope of the Federal funds grant's dedicated for specific purposes is on sure way to find your agency's name off the DHS First Responder Grants Award listing. In fact, you might even find your agency under investigation for mis-appropriation of Federal funds by deception. The road from a Funding audit to a Grand Jury is a whole lot shorter than most people think. That paperwork for the grants is gonna hang some Chief's and Sheriff's if they keep using these funds for rewards as oppossed to educating the officer's, deputies and agent's.