Officer mentoring program

[cc_chiller]

Anyone out there work at an agency with some sort of peer mentoring program? I am thinking about some type of program where once a new officer is out of FTO, he stills has a "mentor" officer for his first year or so. The mentor checks in on him and rides with him every once and a while to see how he is progressing, answer questions, give advice etc...

If so, I would love to hear about it, and your thoughts on whether or not it works.

Tried to search the forums for info on this, but couldn't find much....

[StudChris]

I think it's a great idea. Luckily at my department we're in a small enough jurisdiction that we see each other all day every day, I see one of my favorite FTOs every day I work, and one of the others every few days.

[Guams]

We have that. We call him "Sergeant."

[cc_chiller]

We have that. We call him "Sergeant."

If you knew any of the sergeants I work for, you would know why that comment made me laugh out loud.

[Monkeybomb]

We have a mentoring program at our agency. It starts during the academy. It includes Line level up to command staff as mentors. Usually they stick with the mentor for at least their first year and often throughout thier careers. I am also an FTO and tend to mentor my trainees throughout the first few years of their careers. They will call if they are stuck on something or having problems somewhere along the way.

[Dogsitter]

We don't have that type of program on paper. Usually, once a recruit finishes field training he/she is taken off their FTO's shift. One reason is to let them get their feet wet on their own and see how other officers work. Usually, their new partner is someone senior to them so the guidance can still be there if needed. Kind of an "unofficial" thing but works great for comraderie. We have some really strong junior officers and I think it's good idea to "hand them over" unofficially once field training is done.

[Solohammer]

Once we get our trainees (or interns, whatever) from the Academy, they spend at least twelve weeks in the Field Training Unit where they get trained on operations more specific to the station and our AOR. Once the trainee is out of the FTO program, they get assigned to one of four units (shifts) and have to ride with a Journeyman until they have ten months on the job. Then they are allowed to go out solo. In the FTU, they get a written eval once a week. While they ride with a Journeyman, he writes an eval on them every two weeks. Once the trainee is on his own, he no longer gets rated by a Journeyman, but instead recieves a monthly eval from his supervisor. This lasts until the trainee is off probation. (two years)

[CHP7016]

Anyone out there work at an agency with some sort of peer mentoring program? I am thinking about some type of program where once a new officer is out of FTO, he stills has a "mentor" officer for his first year or so.

You have an excellent idea, and we have actually been advocating a mentoring program for departments. It's slightly different than those suggested, here, but I think would be a healthy, encouraging resource for officers to talk freely, away from the police "culture", get the reinforcement they need, a bit of straight advice, and a feeling of trust similar to what they can share with a peer support officer.

[GC Tiger]

We work two officers to every area so we try and put the rookies in an area with a senior officer. That way they have someone to tell them, "I wouldn't do that ***** if I was you."