Blue Canary: For Cops By a Cop - Why be an FTO?

Why be an FTO?

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07/13/22 • 19 min

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Blue Canary: For Cops By a Cop

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What is an FTO?

Well, you should already know by now because you should have gone through an FTO program when you hired on the job. You mean you didn’t have an FTO program? You mean they just handed you the keys to the car, a map, and said call me if you have any problems?

Unfortunately, this is all too familiar.
Now what do we mean by Field Training Officer Program? It is simply an on-the-job training program that assists with the on-boarding and training of brand-new officers to the police department. It does this by having the new officers ride every day with a trained trainer called a Field Training Officer or FTO who teaches, mentors, trains, evaluates, councils, facilitates, and leads the new officer until they have proven they are capable of doing the job by themselves. The Field Training Program ensure that every new officer on the department has the skills and training necessary to do the job. Many people look at this as the first step in a police officer’s career, but the reality is it’s the last step in the selection process. There is no better way to ensure that someone can do the job then having them do the job.

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What is an FTO?

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Training with Jim Glennon

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Training, you are going to hear a lot about training in this season’s episodes. It’s the cornerstone of good police work and unfortunately, we don’t get it when we need it. There are lots of reasons why and we are going to explore those and other training topics on this episode with our interview of Lt. Jim Glennon.

Jim started with the Lombard Illinois Police Department in 1980 and held many positions at the department. In 1998 he became the first Commander of the Dupage County Major Crimes Task Force. He also holds a BA in Psychology and a master’s degree in Police management. He acquired Calibre Press in 2012 and today provides training through books, newsletters, seminars, online training, and in-person training.

Jim took the time to talk with me about the current state of training, the problems with training, and some insight into issues facing law enforcement today.

Next Episode

Uvalde

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On May 24th, 2022, a gunman entered the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County Texas and murdered 19 children and 2 adult teachers.

The police stood by for over an hour while the active killer was on the loose in the school and did nothing.

That’s hard for me to believe.

But it’s true, and as we learn more about the police response or lack thereof, I personally become more disgusted.

That is not what police believe in. That is not what we do and that is not who we are. Unfortunately, we gotta own it.

Our profession failed that day.

It is the most egregious failure of law enforcement in the United States in my lifetime and arguable the worst failure of our profession in its history.
We must ensure that it never happens again.