When “How We’ve Always Done It” Stops Working: Rethinking Field Training

The goal of field training shouldn’t be to see who survives the scoring. It should be to produce officers you want working beside you.

But most programs still trace back to the San Jose model, which is more than 50 years old. A new officer is scored from day one, expected to struggle, and graded on mistakes before anyone has taught them how to avoid them.

Almost everything else in law enforcement has been updated. Radios, firearms, vehicles, and in-service training look nothing like they did in the 1970s. The way we train our newest officers is the exception.

That gap was the focus of a recent Vector Solutions webinar, “Why It’s Time to Rethink Field Training,” featuring Jason Devlin of Nextgen Field Training, Dr. Bob Jensen of Point University, and Sgt. Dan Greene (ret.), Executive Director at the National Association of Field Training Officers (NAFTO), moderated by Sgt. Doug Kazensky (ret.), Senior Solutions Engineer at Vector Solutions. Here’s what they shared about why the traditional approach falls short and what a different one looks like.

Why the Old Model Is Still Around

The San Jose model is familiar. Most officers were trained under it, so most ran it the same way, without asking why.

Greene compared it to a 1972 Volkswagen Bug, the same year San Jose was created. Replace enough parts over the years and you end up with a car that’s nothing like the original. That’s what most agencies have done: they run a hybrid. The model fit its time, but research shows it isn’t best for the agency or the student, and many FTOs no longer know why it was designed the way it was

Scoring From Day One Teaches Avoidance

Devlin describes traditional models as a college class where the instructor hands you the final exam on day one, teaches the material, and grades you at random. Fail, and you’re out.

His own first day in field training fit that pattern. His FTO had him write a ticket he’d never practiced on a real form. He made mistakes and was told another one would earn him a one for the day. He didn’t know what a one was, only that it sounded bad. He didn’t know which of the five ticket copies went to the driver until he asked mid-stop. “It’s the red one, you rookie,” his FTO said.

The problem goes beyond a rough first day. Greene explained that learning driven by consequences tends to create behavior avoidance, not behavior change. New officers figure out what earns a low score and steer clear of it. Devlin agreed, “It’s not about how much can I learn to be a great cop. It’s what do I have to do to pass field training.”

What Teaching First Looks Like

Jason Devlin didn’t set out to build a new model. A former seventh-grade math teacher with a degree in education and curriculum development, he was running Scottsdale PD’s field training program when a class on the history of field training at a 2019 conference stopped him. The San Jose model was more than 50 years old, and Reno more than 30. “There’s nothing else in law enforcement we use that’s thirty and fifty years old,” he remembers thinking.

That night, he wrote a paper on what an ideal program would look like. With Scottsdale PD’s approval, he spent six months writing the manual, and the first group of new officers went through in August 2019. The idea came straight from the classroom: teach the class first, then give the final exam.

Nextgen Field Training separates teaching from evaluating:

• Phases 1 to 3: train, don’t score. Trainees work with three different FTOs using a crawl, walk, run approach. FTOs still evaluate, but every mistake is a chance to coach, not a mark against the trainee.
• Phase 4: evaluate with a familiar FTO. The trainee returns to their first trainer, which makes the first evaluation less of a leap.
• Phase 5: evaluate with a new FTO. An independent FTO gives an unbiased second opinion on whether the trainee is ready for solo patrol.
• Solo phase: patrol supervisors weigh in. The supervisors who will work with the officer observe them and sign them out of field training.

If a trainee struggles with critical tasks, the ones that get officers hurt, killed, or sued, like use of force and search and seizure, the program pauses for a standardized two-week performance training plan. It’s framed as support, not punishment. The structure is also flexible. Agencies have run phases of three, five, or six weeks, with the four-week phase as a starting point.

The Trainer Matters as Much as the Model

A better model still depends on the person in the passenger seat. Devlin noted that traditional FTO schools spend roughly 80% of the time on evaluation guidelines, liability, and paperwork. Nextgen flips that: 80% on how to teach, train, lead, and mentor, and 20% on the admin.

One key skill is the debrief. Instead of a senior officer announcing what went right and wrong, the trainee does most of the work:

1. What did you do well?
2. What would you do to improve the next call like this?
3. What does that look like in practice?

Asking trainees to picture the next call builds problem solvers, not officers who memorize 30 steps.

What the Early Research Shows

Field training has very little empirical research behind it, so Dr. Jensen set out to study one approach. He surveyed training coordinators, FTOs, and supervisors at 14 agencies that had fully adopted Nextgen, ranging from fewer than 100 officers to more than 500. All 14 responded, for 40 survey respondents in total.

Here’s what he found:

• Retention: Eight of the 14 agencies saw more recruits make it through field training, and none saw a decrease. Jensen called the evidence strongly suggestive, though not statistically significant.
• Performance: Respondents rated Nextgen between 3.65 and 4.33 out of 5 compared to their previous model, including on officers ready for solo patrol and decision-making in complex scenarios. That result was statistically significant.
• Agreement: Coordinators, FTOs, and supervisors all responded positively.

Devlin’s own numbers point the same way. At Scottsdale PD, 196 trainees have gone through the program in seven years, with an 88% retention rate. Of the 12% who left, half were let go for performance and half chose to leave.

Higher retention doesn’t mean lower standards, Greene said. The same research shows stronger problem-solving and officers who are better prepared for solo patrol.

It’s an early study with a small sample, and Jensen is clear that more research is needed.

Where to Start

The webinar offered four questions as a place to start for any program you’re responsible for:

1. What do you want to stop doing?
2. What do you want to start doing?
3. What do you want to continue doing?
4. What are the first three steps to make that change?

Then look past “this is the way we’ve always done it” and see what else exists. Change has come slowly to field training partly because few alternatives have been widely shared.

Learning doesn’t have to be miserable. Agencies can make new officers prove they’re good enough to be there, or they can bring them onto the team and teach them first. The choice shapes more than the program. As Greene put it, the culture roots officers grow in field training “last a long, long time.”

To learn more about how Vector Solutions can support operations at your agency, please request a demo today.

Vector Solutions and Frontline have partnered to provide a suite of industry-leading software solutions for law enforcement, including training management systems, online training courses, FTO and live skill evaluations, academy automation, asset and fleet management, shift scheduling, body-worn camera audits, community policing engagement, policy management, early intervention and professional standards, performance management, and accreditation management.