Police Training Officer (Pto) Overview and Introduction

In their implementation of community-oriented policing, police executives have voiced a common concern about training, especially post-academy field training for new officers. Post-academy field training has not emphasized or promoted community policing concepts and behaviors. To address this deficiency, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services funded the development of an alternative national model for field training that would incorporate community policing and problem-solving principles. To accomplish the objective, the Reno (Nevada) Police Department partnered with the Police Executive Research Forum. The result of their collaboration is a new training program called the Police Training Officer (PTO) program. It incorporates contemporary methods in adult education and a version of the problem-based learning method of teaching adapted for police.