| LAW AND ORDER: THE MAGAZINE FOR POLICE MANAGEMENT August 1999 Special Report: New Police Training Philosophy: Adult Learning Model on Verge of Nationwide Rollout by Richard B. Weinblatt (pp. 84-90) |
A group of influential criminal justice training leaders recently met in Orlando, Florida, and
got a look at what is being hailed by many as a revolution in law enforcement training.
Reportedly, the experts were impressed by what they saw and many indicated an interest
in taking the new training mantra back to their home agencies.
Culled from highly respected teaching luminaries at places such as the prestigious Johns
Hopkins University, the Adult Learning Model is believed by its proponents to be the
radical new look of police training in the 21st century.
In Orlando, members of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement
Standards and Training (IADLEST) learned why Florida is on the cutting edge and
apparently the first to be revamping its training curriculum all across the state.
The concept has many complex facets to it, but the basic premise involves a move toward
student-centered learning. Key is that the students are facilitated in their learning
endeavors by training personnel. This is in contrast to the lecture-orientation law
enforcement academies traditionally use that evokes a passive
learning response.
Under the new wave, referred to by some as Problem-based Police Training (PPT),
problems and scenarios become the conduit through which an understanding and ability to
problem solve develops. Instructors serve as guides and facilitators, forcing students to
find answers on their own much as they would have to on the street. Basic law
enforcement training has been the original focus for the Adult Learning Model and some
agencies are already implementing this new method.
Florida's Revolution
"The state of Florida is going to scenario based training. We are getting away from the
talking-head lecture," pronounced A. Leon Lowry II, director of
professionalism (which includes training) for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,
the governmental entity that houses the state's Criminal Justice
Standards and Training Commission (CJSTC). Lowry, president of IADLEST, presented his
peers with the new look of training for Florida.
Pat Melton, bureau chief of training for the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training
Commission, gave a three-hour presentation.
"First we gave them a standard lecture on the process and you could see the yawns,
glazed eyes and bored faces. Then we handled them as if they were students in our new
curriculum and took them through two scenarios. That is where we made a difference,"
Melton said.
The shift in training philosophy will effect a huge number of criminal justice workers.
Ultimately, the over 14 million citizens of Florida should benefit from the training revolution.
Changes in Maryland
Dr. Karen Spencer thinks that residents of the Baltimore, Maryland, area are already
seeing positive results. She switched to law enforcement training
because she views the Adult Learning Model revolution in police training as vital to the
future of the criminal justice system.
At the educational and research powerhouses Johns Hopkins University and the University
of Maryland at College Park, Spencer's theories took shape and impacted the private
sector. As director of curriculum and instruction for the Maryland Police Corps, she is
seeing those concepts take place and make an impact again.
Departments involved in Maryland's cutting edge program which encompasses the
additional twist of the Adult Learning Model include the Baltimore City Police
Department, the Baltimore County Police Department and the Prince George's County
Police Department.
While her group may be the first in the United States, sharing the sentiment of Florida's
Leon Lowry, Spencer is not proprietary-minded with the concept and is eager to spread
the word. The state of Kentucky is using parts of the training that they adopted from
Maryland. Spencer's staff is also working with the Maryland State Police to switch them to
the program.
Under the seasoned "new generation" instructional staff, the new training disciples act as
facilitators in the Police Corps.' training program and learn how to make problem based
training work for their agencies.
Others have been knocking on Spencer's door to glean information on the initiative, thus
giving even more of an indication of the coming wave. She said that she has spoken with a
number of agencies that are at various stages of making the crossover.
Interestingly, it was an agency far to the north of Maryland that originated the concept.
According to those interviewed, the results generated at the pioneer-spirited Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) from the Adult Learning Model have been amazing. The
RCMP's training staff and field personnel both point to
Canada's proven track record with the concept.
The RCMP, Canada's national police agency, employs some 16,000 full-time constables.
Their duties include federal policing (like FBI and DEA), provincial policing (like state
police), municipal policing, and aboriginal enforcement (like tribal police).
Field-based RCMP coaches (referred to as field training officers in the U.S.) report that
assessment scores have skyrocketed for constable graduates of the new training model.
"We believe our graduates gain the equivalent of between two to four years of experience
in this program," stated Dr. Frum Himelfarb, the officer in charge of the Learning and
Development Branch for the RCMP. She is widely credited with pioneering the Adult
Learning Model trail.
Even before the Maryland program, many entities came to Himelfarb to glean what they
could for their training efforts. Among the inquiring minds were representatives from 25
U.S. states including California and the U.S. Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
(FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia. Others came from England, Northern Ireland, the United
Nations Peacekeeping Force and
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Florida jumped into the new waters of the Adult Learning Model with the hope it would be a
quality vehicle to move its police training into the 21st century. The
move was thought out in advance by Lowry and his staff.
"We are developing bridge training to transform the instructors into facilitators," said
Florida's Melton. She said as many as 150 people are instructing in each
traditional academy class. The new program is expected to cut down the numbers of
people on staff, but the basic training hours will still be in the area of 670 hours.
Himelfarb explained a basic philosophy of the RCMP program. "We focus on creating
continuous learners who can operate in a continuously changing world. We do not want
people who simply memorize and regurgitate what we tell them."
Medical School Genesis
The move away from teacher focused lecturing to student centered learning had its
genesis at Canada's McMaster University Medical School and spread to all medical
schools in Canada and eventually to U.S. medical schools.
"Medicine is similar to police work in that both had been reactive but in recent years have
become proactive," Himelfarb pointed out. Both necessitate partnering with the patient, or
community, to come up with diagnosis and preventative measures. Both have some
activities involving emergency situations where life and death decisions must be made
quickly and accurately."
Tufts University Medical School in the United States copied McMaster University's teaching
model and conducted a comparative study. Himelfarb stated that Tufts found that the
graduates of the new style of learning "were 65% more accurate in their diagnosis" than
those who preceded them.
Himelfarb and her staff re-designed their curriculum based on "integrated problem based
situations." She said the RCMP wanted their officers to know how to get information, where
to get it and how to apply it. They wanted recruits to develop decision points and possess
critical thinking skills.
The new police training model goes beyond the one or two role playing exercises
traditionally done at academies. While scenarios and role playing are an integral part of
the new process, they are but a tool to support the overall learning concept that starts at
the academy, goes to field training and extends throughout the officer's career.
The RCMP started by looking at this relatively new movement which they said involves four
facets:
1) crime centers
2) problem solving
3) partnerships
4) continuous learning and improvement
"If their house has been broken into, people want to know 'what are you going to do to
help us.' They don't care about stats. They don't want us (the police) just
to react," said R.J. (Bob) Kennedy, a sergeant with the RCMP's Learning and
Development Branch.
The RCMP found that police instruction had erroneously been based on what the police
do, rather than the proper focus on the community and crime. In effect the public is law
enforcement's "clients." They are referred to as
CAPRA: clients, analyzing, partnerships, response, and assessments and
continuous learning. This is applied to their training.
"We want our people to learn through problem solving, not about problem solving,"
Himelfarb said, stressing the important difference.
Maryland's Spencer echoed the sentiment. "Our students are learning in a thinking mode,
not a passive mode." This approach has been dubbed SCAPRA, a slight adaptation to the
Canadian model. They added the "S" for scanning.
Four Hours of Lecture
With the learner centered, problem-solving orientation, a quantifiable difference is
discernable in the RCMP's basic training course. Of 900 hours of training, there
are only four hours of lecture.
Basic training of the Mounties still takes place at their facility located in Regina,
Saskatchewan, but the type of instruction is definitely different. RCMP trainers contend
that memorization does not connote understanding. It does not contribute to an officer's
ability to use the material in evolving situations.
The Canadian teachers have gotten creative in using non-lecture activities to make the
students into active learners. For their mental health issues training, the students
previously listened while an expert lectured them on various disorders. Now they research
the topic themselves.
Students are encouraged to go beyond library resources and contact mental health
facilities for information on topics such as paranoia and Alzheimer's disease. They then
gather as a class and present their findings with experts present to give them feedback.
A lecture on human rights by those active in the area has been similarly replaced by
participation in resolving typical scenarios.
A standard communication with children lecture has been jettisoned in favor of inviting a
first grade class in for a tour of the RCMP's police academy. The cadets
have to get information from the children and they see first hand for themselves the
problems in acquiring it.
"Many cadets have not have had this type of exposure to children. This gives them a
active learner role for understanding children that is above and beyond what a lecture
provides," Himelfarb said.
The Maryland Police Corps has its own twist on learning how to deal with young people.
On the first day of a weekend long outward bound challenge course,
cadets rappel off a 60-foot tower and do other physically taxing activities. On the second
day the cadets mentor a young person through the course.
There was also an interesting way to tackle the important topics of constitutional law and
community relations. "While the cadets were training, we had actual officers come in and
act like they received a 'man with gun' call. The cadets were put on the ground, frisked
and arrested," Spencer said.
Afterwards, an animated discussion ensued on whether the officer was legally correct for
taking that course of action. The students also hashed out how they felt about the
aggressive action.
Role Playing
Important in the teaching armory of the RCMP is role-playing. The basic training involves a
lot of role playing in the classroom and in actual city streets as part of a mock detachment.
Members of the community assist in the role-playing.
For the academic training block of law, which has bored and befuddled many a recruit,
Himelfarb favors teaching the rules of legal interpretation. She said few officers remember
all the laws within their jurisdictional scope. More importantly, few rookies can correctly and
consistently apply the law to given varied
situations on the street. The RCMP now stresses how to look things up, coupled with
realistic role playing exercises that integrates many facets of the training.
Role-playing is the dominant method and they are crafted to involve multiple lessons
under highly controlled and structured conditions. Impressively, the RCMP trainers go
even further than individual scenarios and link up multiple situations back to back just as a
busy shift might be.
"With each module, students experience a full investigation. They go through nine files
(cases) from simple cases to more complex ones," Himelfarb said.
The process includes risk assessment, gathering information and evidence, and going to
court, which involves a mock courtroom where the student has to present the case. They
then get feedback on the entire process from the facilitators and students.
"Aggressive situations are worked in. From a full hour, by the second month they get it
down to 15 minutes. Risk assessment and coming up with levels of force options became
second nature," Himelfarb said. They have turned their use of force model into an
intervention model.
Even 30-year RCMP veterans have bought into the concept. Kennedy, one of those
veterans, explained how a two to three day detachment role-play exercise takes place at
the mid-term point.
"We put cadets, fully uniformed with all their equipment, in an unmarked police car. They
have to answer a radio-dispatched call in the city. They actually go into the city to
'respond' to the call," Kennedy explained. The students have to find the address on a
map, respond to the location, and interact with the "involved" people upon their arrival.
The calls are packed tightly to simulate a busy shift and the students have to fill out
reports and discharge all the duties as they would do after graduation. An
instructor accompanies the team. Each student operates ostensibly as a one-man car, but
several students occupy the vehicle and rotate being "on call."
People from the community help with the role-playing. The Regina homes, businesses and
city street settings are clearly more realistic than an antiseptic classroom with a few
strategically placed chairs and desks.
"They don't spoon feed you in the academy. If you have a question, you have to use
resources to come up with the answer," said Stephane Babb, a new constable assigned to
a remote four person detachment in
Newfoundland. He said he was encouraged to use the CAPRA problem-solving model.
"They have you doing things like assisting the public and using your notebook. Eventually
you work up to drug charges. The final tests are basically scenarios," Babb said of the
role-playing. "It was an excellent process."
Jay White, a nine-year veteran constable and Babb's field training coach, said he had only
one theoretical investigation in his days at the academy. "I was
unprepared for 20 to 30 investigations at one time. It's good that they now have several
files ongoing where you have to prioritize various levels of severity."
In the U.S., Spencer said the benefits of extensive role-playing is clear. After every fifth
module, the Maryland Police Corps cadets are required to answer
multiple "calls" stacked for a full day. The knowledge and skills they must produce reflect
the cumulative teachings up to that point in the course.
"The cadets get into a patrol car, are radio dispatched and respond to the call. They have
to clear from the call, write the report and handle the next call,"
Spencer said. The cadets also make extensive use of ride-alongs and walk-alongs with
on-duty officers in Baltimore.
"We believe in the hands-on approach. The problem is presented to the student and the
facilitators are there to help," said Florida's Lowry.
Melton explained that she and her colleagues have created a virtual city, dubbed Spanish
Moss, for use in scenarios. The city has elements to meet the needs of
the varied law enforcers they oversee in the state. It includes a "jail, an interstate highway
and a Florida Highway Patrol station."
"The scenarios are the results of two years of work. They are designed for specific
competencies, licensure and are legally defensible," Melton said.
The CJSTC started its process with a needs assessment to understand the needs and
concerns of their various constituencies. They then did a job task analysis including a
stratified sampling covering north, central and south parts of the state along with large,
medium and small jurisdictions. Lastly, they conducted an instructional analysis involving
goals, skills and seven threaded objectives for learning.
While not known for its openness to change, the Adult Learning Model promises to be a
revolutionary transformation in law enforcement affecting the basic,
field and advanced training components of a policing career. It is a new approach that will
change the lives of countless law enforcers, thus touching the millions
of people they serve.
Canada and Maryland have started the ball rolling into 21st century, with Florida and
others joining in. A new scenario is rising on the horizon for the modern law
enforcement professional.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Frum Himelfarb
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Telephone: (613) 993-1414
E-mail: frum.himelfarb@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Dr. Karen Spencer
Maryland Police Corps.
Telephone: (410) 859-5699
E-mail: klspda@aol.com
Pat Melton
Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training
Commission
Telephone: (850) 410-8654
E-mail: patmelton@fdle.state.fl.us
Richard B. Weinblatt, teaches criminal justice at Anson Community College in Polkton,
NC, and is a regular contributor to L&O.
got a look at what is being hailed by many as a revolution in law enforcement training.
Reportedly, the experts were impressed by what they saw and many indicated an interest
in taking the new training mantra back to their home agencies.
Culled from highly respected teaching luminaries at places such as the prestigious Johns
Hopkins University, the Adult Learning Model is believed by its proponents to be the
radical new look of police training in the 21st century.
In Orlando, members of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement
Standards and Training (IADLEST) learned why Florida is on the cutting edge and
apparently the first to be revamping its training curriculum all across the state.
The concept has many complex facets to it, but the basic premise involves a move toward
student-centered learning. Key is that the students are facilitated in their learning
endeavors by training personnel. This is in contrast to the lecture-orientation law
enforcement academies traditionally use that evokes a passive
learning response.
Under the new wave, referred to by some as Problem-based Police Training (PPT),
problems and scenarios become the conduit through which an understanding and ability to
problem solve develops. Instructors serve as guides and facilitators, forcing students to
find answers on their own much as they would have to on the street. Basic law
enforcement training has been the original focus for the Adult Learning Model and some
agencies are already implementing this new method.
Florida's Revolution
"The state of Florida is going to scenario based training. We are getting away from the
talking-head lecture," pronounced A. Leon Lowry II, director of
professionalism (which includes training) for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,
the governmental entity that houses the state's Criminal Justice
Standards and Training Commission (CJSTC). Lowry, president of IADLEST, presented his
peers with the new look of training for Florida.
Pat Melton, bureau chief of training for the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training
Commission, gave a three-hour presentation.
"First we gave them a standard lecture on the process and you could see the yawns,
glazed eyes and bored faces. Then we handled them as if they were students in our new
curriculum and took them through two scenarios. That is where we made a difference,"
Melton said.
The shift in training philosophy will effect a huge number of criminal justice workers.
Ultimately, the over 14 million citizens of Florida should benefit from the training revolution.
Changes in Maryland
Dr. Karen Spencer thinks that residents of the Baltimore, Maryland, area are already
seeing positive results. She switched to law enforcement training
because she views the Adult Learning Model revolution in police training as vital to the
future of the criminal justice system.
At the educational and research powerhouses Johns Hopkins University and the University
of Maryland at College Park, Spencer's theories took shape and impacted the private
sector. As director of curriculum and instruction for the Maryland Police Corps, she is
seeing those concepts take place and make an impact again.
Departments involved in Maryland's cutting edge program which encompasses the
additional twist of the Adult Learning Model include the Baltimore City Police
Department, the Baltimore County Police Department and the Prince George's County
Police Department.
While her group may be the first in the United States, sharing the sentiment of Florida's
Leon Lowry, Spencer is not proprietary-minded with the concept and is eager to spread
the word. The state of Kentucky is using parts of the training that they adopted from
Maryland. Spencer's staff is also working with the Maryland State Police to switch them to
the program.
Under the seasoned "new generation" instructional staff, the new training disciples act as
facilitators in the Police Corps.' training program and learn how to make problem based
training work for their agencies.
Others have been knocking on Spencer's door to glean information on the initiative, thus
giving even more of an indication of the coming wave. She said that she has spoken with a
number of agencies that are at various stages of making the crossover.
Interestingly, it was an agency far to the north of Maryland that originated the concept.
According to those interviewed, the results generated at the pioneer-spirited Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) from the Adult Learning Model have been amazing. The
RCMP's training staff and field personnel both point to
Canada's proven track record with the concept.
The RCMP, Canada's national police agency, employs some 16,000 full-time constables.
Their duties include federal policing (like FBI and DEA), provincial policing (like state
police), municipal policing, and aboriginal enforcement (like tribal police).
Field-based RCMP coaches (referred to as field training officers in the U.S.) report that
assessment scores have skyrocketed for constable graduates of the new training model.
"We believe our graduates gain the equivalent of between two to four years of experience
in this program," stated Dr. Frum Himelfarb, the officer in charge of the Learning and
Development Branch for the RCMP. She is widely credited with pioneering the Adult
Learning Model trail.
Even before the Maryland program, many entities came to Himelfarb to glean what they
could for their training efforts. Among the inquiring minds were representatives from 25
U.S. states including California and the U.S. Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
(FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia. Others came from England, Northern Ireland, the United
Nations Peacekeeping Force and
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Florida jumped into the new waters of the Adult Learning Model with the hope it would be a
quality vehicle to move its police training into the 21st century. The
move was thought out in advance by Lowry and his staff.
"We are developing bridge training to transform the instructors into facilitators," said
Florida's Melton. She said as many as 150 people are instructing in each
traditional academy class. The new program is expected to cut down the numbers of
people on staff, but the basic training hours will still be in the area of 670 hours.
Himelfarb explained a basic philosophy of the RCMP program. "We focus on creating
continuous learners who can operate in a continuously changing world. We do not want
people who simply memorize and regurgitate what we tell them."
Medical School Genesis
The move away from teacher focused lecturing to student centered learning had its
genesis at Canada's McMaster University Medical School and spread to all medical
schools in Canada and eventually to U.S. medical schools.
"Medicine is similar to police work in that both had been reactive but in recent years have
become proactive," Himelfarb pointed out. Both necessitate partnering with the patient, or
community, to come up with diagnosis and preventative measures. Both have some
activities involving emergency situations where life and death decisions must be made
quickly and accurately."
Tufts University Medical School in the United States copied McMaster University's teaching
model and conducted a comparative study. Himelfarb stated that Tufts found that the
graduates of the new style of learning "were 65% more accurate in their diagnosis" than
those who preceded them.
Himelfarb and her staff re-designed their curriculum based on "integrated problem based
situations." She said the RCMP wanted their officers to know how to get information, where
to get it and how to apply it. They wanted recruits to develop decision points and possess
critical thinking skills.
The new police training model goes beyond the one or two role playing exercises
traditionally done at academies. While scenarios and role playing are an integral part of
the new process, they are but a tool to support the overall learning concept that starts at
the academy, goes to field training and extends throughout the officer's career.
The RCMP started by looking at this relatively new movement which they said involves four
facets:
1) crime centers
2) problem solving
3) partnerships
4) continuous learning and improvement
"If their house has been broken into, people want to know 'what are you going to do to
help us.' They don't care about stats. They don't want us (the police) just
to react," said R.J. (Bob) Kennedy, a sergeant with the RCMP's Learning and
Development Branch.
The RCMP found that police instruction had erroneously been based on what the police
do, rather than the proper focus on the community and crime. In effect the public is law
enforcement's "clients." They are referred to as
CAPRA: clients, analyzing, partnerships, response, and assessments and
continuous learning. This is applied to their training.
"We want our people to learn through problem solving, not about problem solving,"
Himelfarb said, stressing the important difference.
Maryland's Spencer echoed the sentiment. "Our students are learning in a thinking mode,
not a passive mode." This approach has been dubbed SCAPRA, a slight adaptation to the
Canadian model. They added the "S" for scanning.
Four Hours of Lecture
With the learner centered, problem-solving orientation, a quantifiable difference is
discernable in the RCMP's basic training course. Of 900 hours of training, there
are only four hours of lecture.
Basic training of the Mounties still takes place at their facility located in Regina,
Saskatchewan, but the type of instruction is definitely different. RCMP trainers contend
that memorization does not connote understanding. It does not contribute to an officer's
ability to use the material in evolving situations.
The Canadian teachers have gotten creative in using non-lecture activities to make the
students into active learners. For their mental health issues training, the students
previously listened while an expert lectured them on various disorders. Now they research
the topic themselves.
Students are encouraged to go beyond library resources and contact mental health
facilities for information on topics such as paranoia and Alzheimer's disease. They then
gather as a class and present their findings with experts present to give them feedback.
A lecture on human rights by those active in the area has been similarly replaced by
participation in resolving typical scenarios.
A standard communication with children lecture has been jettisoned in favor of inviting a
first grade class in for a tour of the RCMP's police academy. The cadets
have to get information from the children and they see first hand for themselves the
problems in acquiring it.
"Many cadets have not have had this type of exposure to children. This gives them a
active learner role for understanding children that is above and beyond what a lecture
provides," Himelfarb said.
The Maryland Police Corps has its own twist on learning how to deal with young people.
On the first day of a weekend long outward bound challenge course,
cadets rappel off a 60-foot tower and do other physically taxing activities. On the second
day the cadets mentor a young person through the course.
There was also an interesting way to tackle the important topics of constitutional law and
community relations. "While the cadets were training, we had actual officers come in and
act like they received a 'man with gun' call. The cadets were put on the ground, frisked
and arrested," Spencer said.
Afterwards, an animated discussion ensued on whether the officer was legally correct for
taking that course of action. The students also hashed out how they felt about the
aggressive action.
Role Playing
Important in the teaching armory of the RCMP is role-playing. The basic training involves a
lot of role playing in the classroom and in actual city streets as part of a mock detachment.
Members of the community assist in the role-playing.
For the academic training block of law, which has bored and befuddled many a recruit,
Himelfarb favors teaching the rules of legal interpretation. She said few officers remember
all the laws within their jurisdictional scope. More importantly, few rookies can correctly and
consistently apply the law to given varied
situations on the street. The RCMP now stresses how to look things up, coupled with
realistic role playing exercises that integrates many facets of the training.
Role-playing is the dominant method and they are crafted to involve multiple lessons
under highly controlled and structured conditions. Impressively, the RCMP trainers go
even further than individual scenarios and link up multiple situations back to back just as a
busy shift might be.
"With each module, students experience a full investigation. They go through nine files
(cases) from simple cases to more complex ones," Himelfarb said.
The process includes risk assessment, gathering information and evidence, and going to
court, which involves a mock courtroom where the student has to present the case. They
then get feedback on the entire process from the facilitators and students.
"Aggressive situations are worked in. From a full hour, by the second month they get it
down to 15 minutes. Risk assessment and coming up with levels of force options became
second nature," Himelfarb said. They have turned their use of force model into an
intervention model.
Even 30-year RCMP veterans have bought into the concept. Kennedy, one of those
veterans, explained how a two to three day detachment role-play exercise takes place at
the mid-term point.
"We put cadets, fully uniformed with all their equipment, in an unmarked police car. They
have to answer a radio-dispatched call in the city. They actually go into the city to
'respond' to the call," Kennedy explained. The students have to find the address on a
map, respond to the location, and interact with the "involved" people upon their arrival.
The calls are packed tightly to simulate a busy shift and the students have to fill out
reports and discharge all the duties as they would do after graduation. An
instructor accompanies the team. Each student operates ostensibly as a one-man car, but
several students occupy the vehicle and rotate being "on call."
People from the community help with the role-playing. The Regina homes, businesses and
city street settings are clearly more realistic than an antiseptic classroom with a few
strategically placed chairs and desks.
"They don't spoon feed you in the academy. If you have a question, you have to use
resources to come up with the answer," said Stephane Babb, a new constable assigned to
a remote four person detachment in
Newfoundland. He said he was encouraged to use the CAPRA problem-solving model.
"They have you doing things like assisting the public and using your notebook. Eventually
you work up to drug charges. The final tests are basically scenarios," Babb said of the
role-playing. "It was an excellent process."
Jay White, a nine-year veteran constable and Babb's field training coach, said he had only
one theoretical investigation in his days at the academy. "I was
unprepared for 20 to 30 investigations at one time. It's good that they now have several
files ongoing where you have to prioritize various levels of severity."
In the U.S., Spencer said the benefits of extensive role-playing is clear. After every fifth
module, the Maryland Police Corps cadets are required to answer
multiple "calls" stacked for a full day. The knowledge and skills they must produce reflect
the cumulative teachings up to that point in the course.
"The cadets get into a patrol car, are radio dispatched and respond to the call. They have
to clear from the call, write the report and handle the next call,"
Spencer said. The cadets also make extensive use of ride-alongs and walk-alongs with
on-duty officers in Baltimore.
"We believe in the hands-on approach. The problem is presented to the student and the
facilitators are there to help," said Florida's Lowry.
Melton explained that she and her colleagues have created a virtual city, dubbed Spanish
Moss, for use in scenarios. The city has elements to meet the needs of
the varied law enforcers they oversee in the state. It includes a "jail, an interstate highway
and a Florida Highway Patrol station."
"The scenarios are the results of two years of work. They are designed for specific
competencies, licensure and are legally defensible," Melton said.
The CJSTC started its process with a needs assessment to understand the needs and
concerns of their various constituencies. They then did a job task analysis including a
stratified sampling covering north, central and south parts of the state along with large,
medium and small jurisdictions. Lastly, they conducted an instructional analysis involving
goals, skills and seven threaded objectives for learning.
While not known for its openness to change, the Adult Learning Model promises to be a
revolutionary transformation in law enforcement affecting the basic,
field and advanced training components of a policing career. It is a new approach that will
change the lives of countless law enforcers, thus touching the millions
of people they serve.
Canada and Maryland have started the ball rolling into 21st century, with Florida and
others joining in. A new scenario is rising on the horizon for the modern law
enforcement professional.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Frum Himelfarb
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Telephone: (613) 993-1414
E-mail: frum.himelfarb@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Dr. Karen Spencer
Maryland Police Corps.
Telephone: (410) 859-5699
E-mail: klspda@aol.com
Pat Melton
Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training
Commission
Telephone: (850) 410-8654
E-mail: patmelton@fdle.state.fl.us
Richard B. Weinblatt, teaches criminal justice at Anson Community College in Polkton,
NC, and is a regular contributor to L&O.
| For contracting of articles, media commentary, or other matters, contact: richard@policearticles.com |
| policearticles.com home of published articles written by Richard B. Weinblatt |
Located just North of Orlando,
Florida, Richard B. Weinblatt
provides professional article
writing services and expert
commentary for the media on a
variety of criminal justice topics
Florida, Richard B. Weinblatt
provides professional article
writing services and expert
commentary for the media on a
variety of criminal justice topics
| FAST FACT "Reserve Reports" by Richard B. Weinblatt, a regular column in LAW AND ORDER: THE MAGAZINE FOR POLICE MANAGEMENT, ran for a decade (1991-2001). |
| FAST FACT Richard Weinblatt's March-April 1997 SHERIFF MAGAZINE article "Sheriffs Take on Rural Patrol Challenge" featured him on the cover. |
| FAST FACT The 250+ page book "Reserve Law Enforcement in the United States" by Richard B. Weinblatt, was published in 1993 |
This website contains criminal justice articles written by former Police Chief and Criminal Justice Professor/Police Academy Manager Richard B. Weinblatt |