Date of Award
1997
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Human Resource Management
Department
Business
First Advisor
Gareth S. Gardiner
Second Advisor
Joseph Lonigro
Third Advisor
James Lister
Abstract
This thesis will focus on the study of police field training and the process in the adoption of a new Field Training and Evaluation Program by the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department.
Newly hired police recruits traditionally have received most of their basic training in the classroom. This training, which is one of the most important functions any police agency undertakes, tries to give recruits basic competency to perform as patrol officers.
The purpose of this research is to develop a good field training manual that can serve as a map for police agencies who are implementing a new program or revising their current program. The descriptive method of research will be utilized to illustrate, through case studies and a collection of statistics, the importance of developing a solid field training program. This research will among other items, address Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (E.E.O.C.) guidelines, officer safety issues, civil liability and Field Training Officer (FTO) selection and retention.
Specifically it is hypothesized that after the survey of experts, using interval data provided by a classic Likert scale, it will be determined that this is a good training manual. This will be done by taking the response to each statement on the survey and then calculating descriptive statistics. This data will determine the support or lack of support for the actual hypothesis.
Ten professional field training officers participated in the study. All of the participants were white males. Their average age was 32 with 10 years of law enforcement experience. Seven years was the average experience as a field training officer. All had attended a Missouri Police Officers Standards in Training (P.O.S.T.) certified 40 hour field training officer seminar. The experts were administered the St. Charles County Sheriffs Department Field Training Manual Survey, during a departmental FTO meeting, for the purpose of measuring their agreement with corresponding responses to the Likert scale.
Results of the analysis produced considerable evidence to support the notion that this is a good field training manual thus supporting the actual hypothesis.
Recommended Citation
Bush, John T., "St. Charles County Sheriff's Department Field Training and Evaluation Program" (1997). Theses. 486.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/theses/486
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