Police Recruit Training Essay, Research Paper

ESSAY QUESTIONS

Question #3

Discuss the value and components of a police recruit training.

Police recruit training is the first step in becoming a police officer.

This training initializes and orients persons to department objectives and knowledge

required for police work. Courses range from two weeks to 6 months. These courses are

required for new officers. The necessary skills and professional know-how are

established here.

The majority of big cities on the U.S. have their own academies where recruits

are trained. About eighty five percent of cities throughout the U.S. with populations of

250,000 have their own academies as well. Smaller areas have regional training areas.

Many academies today are operated by local police staff or at community colleges.

In 1965 the Northern Virginia Police Academy was established. The name later

changed to the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy. It was created to train

police officers from Arlington County, and other personnel located near northern Virginia

such as the city below D.C. called Alexandria and Fairfax. Its history shows the

evolution of police academies. In recent years, training was an estimated eleven weeks.

The weeks were divided into categories such as academics, firearms, physical, and driver

training.

The academics was broken down to show an introduction to police sciences, law,

police life, techniques used in laboratories. The other training, firearms, shows recruits

how to fire and care for their weapon. It also gave them familiarization with the weapons

functions and types. Physical training ranged from self-defense to drill marching. The

driver training gave recruits the chance to familiarize themselves with high speed driving

and techniques on a simplified course with traffic cones.

As time passed on educational needs increased. In 1970, Virginia formed

a training commission to delegate mandatory requirements. Now all sworn officers are

required receiving 160 hours of additional training during their first year. Veterans,

however, are required 40 hours of in-service training to match this requirement every two

years. Blocks were added which included community relations, crisis intervention and

managemant, officer survival, advanced driver training, tactical decisions, judgmental

shooting, and sensitivity training.

The training and theories taught at these academies, prepare new recruits for real

life situations due to past encounters and experience taught at the academy. Many basic

skills are instilled at these institutions and are a great value to departments nationwide.

These areas teach the ?right way to handle things.?

Bibliography

*All information used in formulating this essay are from text within, An Introduction to Policing, Second Edition, (Boston: West/Wadsworth Publishing, 1999), ISBN 0-534-54675-7 John S. Dempsey.