Article Highlights
The quality of your training largely determines the quality of your officers. Unfortunately, many agencies face training challenges that impact officers at every level.
Inefficient training processes lead to wasted time. Limited visibility prevents agencies from making data-informed improvements. And all of the above increases the risk of liability.
What’s the solution? Not gritting your teeth. Not inefficient workarounds that may have become the status quo. The solution is police training software.
What is police training software?
Police training software helps law enforcement agencies manage, track, and measure training for officers entering a new phase of their career.
Whether it’s a recruit entering your field training program or a seasoned officer being promoted, software like PowerReady provides pre-built programs, configurable templates, quick-view dashboards, and robust reports to make training easy.
At the end of the day, the centralized and automated processes available in police training software save time and resources while producing confident, competent officers who are ready for their new role in your department.
Police training challenges
Inefficient Processes
Training new officers is a time-intensive process with many regulations. Proving compliance with these regulations requires:
- Accurate reporting and thorough documentation
- Careful organization of all training materials
In addition to their own workload, FTOs must train recruits. On top of training recruits, they have to complete extensive documentation. Field training officers may be the best of the best, but such a demanding workload can wear anyone down over time.
Unfortunately, paper-based training processes only add to the problem. Searching for important training materials can turn into a scavenger hunt. Completing daily reports at the end of a long training day adds overtime to an already busy schedule and increases the risk of inaccuracy.
When it’s all said and done, these tedious, manual processes can create an inadvertent focus on paperwork instead of mentorship.
Minimal Visibility
Many law enforcement agencies lack visibility in their field training programs. This impacts employees at every level: chiefs, trainers, and trainees.
To get an update on trainees’ progress, chiefs may have to check in manually with trainers. Then they have to wait while trainers consult a PDF or paper checklist.
Visibility fosters accountability. Without it, trainers may miss opportunities to improve, take liberties with the training curriculum, or fail to train recruits on new standards.
With paper forms and physical training books, it’s harder for trainees to look back at completed training or look ahead at the next steps in their training program.
Liability
Training an officer for a new role comes with numerous local, state, and federal regulations. Your department has to comply with these regulations and be able to prove compliance at a moment’s notice.
With a paper-based training program, however, it’s difficult to search filing cabinets, shared drives, personal desktops, etc. for the necessary records. Plus, paper forms can be damaged, lost, or misplaced. This increases the risk of liability and makes your agency more vulnerable to lawsuits.
Benefits of police training software
1. Streamline Training
Spend less time documenting training. The right police training software will cross-fill forms, make smart suggestions, integrate directly with your policies, and equip trainers to focus on mentorship over paperwork.
By completing daily reports and evaluations in the field, you get the most accurate documentation possible. FTOs don’t have to rely on their memory after a long day or week, which improves the accuracy and fairness of reports. And they don’t have to spend hours after their shift filling out paperwork.
2. Increase Visibility
Improve your field training program with real-time data, reports, and dashboards. By gathering year-over-year data on every phase, activity type, trainer, trainee, and more, you gain full visibility into your program.
Easily track trainee progress, trainer success, and program metrics and identify the strengths and weaknesses of your curriculum. With these valuable insights, you can make data-informed decisions. You can address issues before they become liabilities.
3. Reduce Risk
If there is an IA investigation or if a lawsuit is filed, you need immediate access to all the relevant training materials. Police training software provides access to this data in just a few clicks, so you don’t have to riffle through filing cabinets or search the basement storage units. With the right software, like PowerReady, you can easily prove that trainees were trained on relevant topics, show the amount of time spent in training, and more.
4. Train Officers Continuously
Training is necessary for recruits and promotions, of course, but all officers need certification renewals and continuing development throughout their careers.
With police training software, you can manage and track in-service training (continuous training) as well. It centralizes all training records in one place so you can keep officers certified, easily prove compliance, and save time searching for records.
Some solutions even let you create your own training content. Between that and auto-graded tests to ensure comprehension, you can feel confident that your officers understand the latest standards and best practices.
5. Support Trainee Success
Thorough documentation is critical to the training process, but what if you could simplify reporting for your FTOs? Police training software like PowerReady empowers your officers to save time and mentor trainees better.
It creates a consistent training experience for every officer moving into a new role. Instead of training based on personal experience, PowerReady holds trainers accountable to an established curriculum.
Police training software also provides clear expectations and transparent processes, so trainees know what to expect from day one.
6. Ensure Role Readiness
Make sure staff are ready for the next phase of their career with easy-to-add programs for every role in your agency. PowerReady comes with many pre-built programs, including but not limited to:
- San Jose
- Kellams
- Reno/PTO
- Narrative
- New Supervisor
- Investigations
With the programs, dashboards, and automated systems available in police training software, you can know with confidence that every officer is thoroughly and consistently trained.
Learn how PowerReady helps law enforcement
Law enforcement agencies today face challenges that impact officer training and agency culture. Fortunately, PowerReady was built for the needs of law enforcement. Our police training software conforms to fit your training process, not the other way around.
By prioritizing and optimizing officer development, you can raise morale, improve agency culture, and increase retention. Book a no-obligation demo today to learn how PowerReady can help your agency. Not ready for a demo? No problem. Fill out the form below to schedule a consultation.