Academy (was Re: Background)

[Guest guest]

<snip>

> While I believe that POST training is helpful, I agree with the

boot

camp

> philosophy. Listening to dispatch tapes can be very intertaining

but until

> you get a trainee behind the radio and start dealing with

hysterical

people

> on 9-1-1 you don't know what they can do.

I've been to a fair number of POST schools (for those outside Calif,

POST reimburses the agency for most of the employee expense, which

makes it easier to get to go), a couple of them 1-2 weeks long. I've

found quite a bit of variation in the instructors (in its defense,

POST demands feedback on every instruction block and instructor).

Some of the instructors were actually very good (the CHP's Graham

Gordon comes to mind - a CHP officer who is also an attorney and is

great at teaching liability - though he may have retired from CHP by

now), and some were... let's say that their hearts aren't in it.

Some instructors have done well with the audio-visual (including

exerpts from movies) and some have used movies and/or tapes just to

fill time.

A major problem is that some of the instructors are Lt's or

Commanders (who have a hard time even remembering where the Comm

Center is) trying to teach these classes. Having seen a couple of

directors of Comm Centers teach, I know a few places I'd *never* work

(or, conversely, never be working there very long), based on the

supervisors I've seen (and a few that looked like admin was on the

ball, too).

Thank you for the response; it hasn't dispelled my opinion that the

entry level school is of very limited utility.

Roy Mumaw

Arroyo Grande PD