In my 23 years of law enforcement I have had the privilege of serving in many different specialty positions. I have been a detective, bicycle officer, Defensive tactics instructor, a TAC officer at the basic law enforcement academy, and a patrol sergeant to name a few. But the one specialty position I found to be the most rewarding was the role of the field training officer. I have worked for two different law enforcement agencies in my career and at both agencies I was an FTO. In fact after my 5 year assignment at the Basic Law Enforcement Academy was completed and I returned to my agency, I reapplied to be an FTO once the position came open. I had the pleasure of training 3 new officers before I was promoted to sergeant. (more…)
Overrides
Recently, I read a Daily Observation Report (DOR) prepared by one of my FTOs. The following is an excerpt of the report: “We were on routine patrol when I ran a random license plate check of a nearby vehicle. The vehicle returned clear of stolen, but the male R/O had an outstanding misdemeanor warrant. I then directed my student officer to pull up beside the vehicle in order to observe the driver. I observed the male driver fit the physicals listed by the DOL for the R/O and on the outstanding warrant. I directed my S/O to initiate a traffic stop. My S/O made several lame protests about “PC” and other trivial matters regarding the validity of the traffic stop. Realizing an override was necessary, I backhanded him in my standard method of correction. After only one “puppy-like” yelp, my S/O activated our patrol car’s overhead lights and stopped the car…” (Okay, I’m kidding) (more…)
