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Police Chiefs and Training Officers: How
Important is Training in Your
Department? In today's modern
police departments, the public that is being served deserves, and in fact
demands, the best trained, most competent police officers that can be obtained.
This is not just limited to the patrolman, but extends to your career officers
in your investigative divisions as well. Far too many departments,
understandably feeling the crunch of reduced training dollars, feel the need to
look for alternatives and in different directions to obtain certain necessary
training. This makes for some very tough decisions.
Can you go out and find "training on the
cheap?" Sure. For every requirement, there is either a vendor selling
reduced cost training or a replacement for tried and true technology. The
saying that comes to mind from an old car repair advertisement is: "You can
pay me now....or you can pay me later."
With all the decisions you have to make,
the American Polygraph Association (APA) want you to know that the selection
you make as to where you send your officers for training is critically
important. In addition, the equipment you purchase is equally important. You
certainly would not purchase weapons for your officers that had not
undergone rigorous testing, nor would you place a patrolman on the street
who was unqualified with his sidearm. Why would anyone consider doing this
same thing in any other aspect of law enforcement work?
Your professional commitment to the
citizens you serve demands that any training must be obtained from an
accredited facility and, just as important, one that utilizes and endorses
the use of equipment that can withstand scientific scrutiny. The end result
is that the student you send to a quality school will pay dividends to you
and your department. If you choose to "bargain" for training and make use of
a lesser training entity, the probability of future liability is
significantly increased.
More and more today, the public is
demanding that all forensic capabilities be made available to identify
criminals, locate stolen property and reduce crime. A properly trained
polygraph examiner can do all that for you.
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