Training, A Risk Management and Loss Prevention Imperative

By Todd Duncan, Law Enforcement and Safety Specialist

When it comes to risk management and loss prevention, few things are more important than regular, documented training. Whether it is online, in the classroom, or simply a quick coaching conversation with a team member, training is essential to the success of every organization. Training is often viewed simply as a part of the orientation process for new employees. The reality is, employee knowledge, skills, and abilities are perishable, and without regular, ongoing training, performance is likely to suffer.

Having a formalized training plan is essential for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, law enforcement officers and jail staff work in high-risk environments where mistakes can be very costly, even deadly. One of the primary means of ensuring safety for employees and the public is to provide staff with the training they need to maintain competency in high-risk critical tasks (see below).

Training impacts employee morale, recruiting, and retention. Employees want to be successful at work, and one of the best ways to make that happen is to invest in their development and growth by providing ongoing training opportunities. Agencies with reputations for developing staff to their full potential and offering regular, meaningful training attract more quality candidates for employment.

Inadequate training can form the basis for civil rights violation claims against counties when the failure to train amounts to deliberate indifference to the rights of citizens. For example, policy makers within the sheriff’s office or jail know with certainty that at some point, their officers will be required to use force to control resistive or combative subjects in the course of their duties. Accordingly, counties equip their officers with tools such as firearms, electronic control devices, safety restraint chairs, and chemical weapons to allow them to respond to these situations. Therefore, an argument can be made that the need to train officers in the constitutional limitations on the use of force is obvious, and failure to do so would demonstrate deliberate indifference to the constitutional rights of citizens.

Training is also necessary to comply with various legal mandates. Nebraska Revised Statute 81-1414.07 and state accreditation requirements require law enforcement officers to attend a minimum of 32 hours of continuing education in the areas of criminal justice and law enforcement each year including:

• Refresher courses on de-escalation, mental health, and substance abuse issues;
• A minimum of two hours of anti-bias and implicit bias training;
• Firearms;
• Officer wellness;
• Legal updates, including, but not limited to, legislative changes and First Amendment and Fourth Amendment issues;
• Vehicular pursuit policy review; and
• Any other training as determined by a law enforcement agency

Similarly, Chapter 2 of the Nebraska Jail Standards sets forth minimum standards of training for jailers and states that, “facilities shall have an organized training program that is planned and coordinated by a designated employee. Training shall be based on, and consistent with the facility’s written policies and procedures and these Standards.” The Standards go on to state that training shall include:

• Facility orientation and training
• Completion of state-approved basic jail training
• Minimum of 18 hours of annual in-service training
• Basic first aid and CPR training within first year of employment (certification must be kept current)

With so many competing priorities facing today’s law enforcement and jail leaders, where does one start when evaluating the effectiveness of an agency’s training programs? One option is to consider the following questions:

• Have all employees completed basic certification requirements established by the state?
• Is there a written onboarding orientation and training checklist for new employees?
• Are new officers and jailers required to successfully complete a structured field training officer (FTO) or corrections training officer (CTO) program?
• Have all employees been trained and/or certified in specialized equipment or tools such as chemical sprays, electronic control devices, less lethal munitions, safety restraint chairs, pepper ball launchers, tire deflation devices, etc.?
• Is there a written annual training plan to ensure all employees complete annual refresher training on the 12 high-risk critical tasks listed below?
• Is all training documented to include training topic; course length; date of training; course outline or curriculum; instructor name; and student name with all training records maintained in individual employee files or master training file?
• Are supervisors expected to provide employees with regular performance coaching, and are these coaching conversations documented?

There are a variety of low or no cost options for providing training for employees, including in-house training programs; outside training; NIRMA’s LocalGovU; NIRMA instructor-led courses; monthly NIRMA Safety Shorts and Roll Call articles; and Nebraska Jail Standards Training Bulletins (older but still valuable). For questions or more information on training opportunities, contact NIRMA’s Law Enforcement and Safety Specialist Todd Duncan at (402) 742-9220 or [email protected].