Best Practice in Police Training J' FrancisSmythe, University College Worcester http:www'worc'ac'uk

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Best Practice in Police Training?J.
Francis-Smythe, University College
Worcesterhttp//www.worc.ac.uk/
INTRODUCTION Methodologies have been proposed
for systematically and scientifically guiding the
training process. Despite the potential benefits
of this knowledge base, however, a distressing
gap still exists between the scholarly work and
the actual conduct of training in organisations.
Dipboye (1997, p.31) This research attempts to
assess the extent to which this statement is true
for police training in the UK. A simplified
version of the Training Wheel (Figure 1)
proposed by Bee and Bee (1995, p.xvi) is the
systems approach framework used in this research.
This poster reports on the methodology employed
for the whole study but focuses specifically on
the findings with respect to identifying
training needs. In a survey carried out as part
of the Price Waterhouse Cranfield Project in
1992, Holden and Livian showed that nearly a
quarter of good practice organisations in the
UK, and nearly half in Germany did not do any
systematic training needs analysis. The favoured
method of assessment varied from country to
country, France, Italy and the Netherlands
preferring analysis of business plans, Sweden
and the UK performance appraisal and
Switzerland, Denmark and Spain, line manager
requests. So how does UK Police training
compare? The Present research uses three level
indicators to indicate the level at which a need
has been identified, the individual, group or
whole organisation. The literature suggests a
number of sources of information in an
organisation which may help with the
identification of training needs. Typically, Bee
and Bee (1995) suggest human resource planning
(HR), succession planning (SP), critical
incidents (CI), management information systems
(MIS) and performance appraisal systems (PA).
The extent to which some or all of these sources
of information are used in analysing needs from
each of the three levels in Police Forces is
analysed.
FINDINGS AT THE ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL A number of
Forces have Training Strategy panels with
representatives from each of the key areas of the
Force who identify corporate training issues.
This seems most effectively monitored in those
forces with a formal Project Management system
which enables Heads of Training to monitor
training applications in large corporate projects
before they are commissioned, requiring all
stakeholders to sign support, thus minimising
un-planned training needs. AT THE OCCUPATIONAL
LEVEL Very few Forces appear to have
systematically carried out role-based training
needs analyses, a few have sought to identify the
training needs of some specific roles (HR) (e.g.
control room operators, Geographic Inspectors)
but only one was identified to have implemented a
large-scale (12 - 25 roles) needs analysis.
Similarly, the methodology employed has varied
from a single questionnaire approach to job
incumbents asking them to rate themselves against
a list of required skills and hence identifying
an overall skills gap, to the determination of
role-specific training needs on the basis of the
professional judgement of key senior people,
through to a full extensive focus
group/interview, observation and survey program
at a 360 degree level. AT THE INDIVIDUAL
LEVEL Most Forces identify individual training
needs at appraisal interviews (PA), which are
generally annual, although one Force identified
ran them 3-monthly. The Home Office developed a
Performance Development Review (PDR) system in
1996 based on 9 Police competencies which most
Forces are now in the process of implementing a
few across the whole Force, officers and support
staff alike. From the analysis it would appear
that as with other major UK organisations (Holden
Livian, 1992) Performance Appraisal is the main
source of information for training needs analysis
in the Police Service but that increasingly Human
Resource Planning and Management Information
Systems are guiding the process. Succession
planning input is still relatively rare. The
research would also appear to support the
concerns of Bee and Bee (1995), cited earlier,
that the quality of the information gained (with
respect to training needs) is very dependent on
the quality of the systems. There appears to be
a general concern that whilst the formal systems
may be in place, the training, development,
monitoring and evaluation issues they present
have still to be addressed.
Figure 1.
REFERENCES Bee, F. Bee, R. (1995). Training
Needs Analysis and Evaluation. Institute of
Personnel and Development. Dipboye, R L. (1997)
Organisational Barriers to Implementing a
Rational Model of Training. In Quinones, M.A.
Ehrenstein, A. Training For a Rapidly Changing
Workplace. American Psychological Association,
Washington. Holden, L. Livian, Y. (1992). Does
strategic training policy exist? Some evidence
from ten European countries. Personnel Review,
21, 1, 12 - 23.
METHOD Phase 1 - Eight Police Forces identified
as exhibiting good practice in training in a
survey by the Police Research Group (RPG) in 1997
participated in the first phase. Taped
interviews with key personnel took place on-site
over a period ranging from 1.5 hours to 6 hours.
Transcription of the tapes and thematic analysis
of the data gave rise to a series of
themes. Phase 2 - A national survey of all
Forces (n47) asked police training departments
to identify any innovative measures they had
taken over the last 12 months in order to
increase the effectiveness of training. The
survey used the themes as prompts. Response rate
was 26. Of this 26, 40 were contacted by
phone for further details. Data from the
interviews and open survey responses were content
analysed and categorised according to the
framework of Training Wheel.