Field Training and Evaluation Program

The Northampton Police Department, in keeping with community expectations for professional police service, established the Field Training and Evaluation Program (FTEP) in 1996. The mission of the FTEP is to prepare Officers in training to perform the essential duties of a police officer and to enhance the professionalism of police service through continuous quality improvement. The FTEP is part of the recruit selection process. All officers hired by the Northampton Police Department must successfully complete the FTEP. Recruit officers who do not successfully complete the FTEP do not continue employment with the police department. Based on the nationally accepted "San Jose Model", the Northampton Police Department Field Training and Evaluation Program pairs a student officer with a specially selected and trained Field Training Officer (FTO). The Field Training Officer (FTO) provides instruction to the trainee officer in areas such as department policy and procedures, laws of arrest, search and seizure, traffic accident investigation, and much more. There are two major components to the Field Training and Evaluation Program: Standardized Training and Standardized Evaluation. The training provides the learning aspect and the evaluation is the testing portion of the program. The FTO uses a mixture of teaching methods to instruct the trainee officer including read/write/discuss, role play, and demonstration while focusing on the concepts of adult learning. The FTO serves as trainer, evaluator and coach to the trainee officer, performing a daily evaluation that tracks the progress of the training function. Field Training Officers can be identified by a chevron that is worn on each sleeve of their shirts. The chevrons are blue and have "Field Training Officer" written along the bottom.