Field Training Officer Program

The Field Training Officer (FTO) program is an intense fifteen week program based on the Bruce Sokolov (incident based) model. It is designed to assist the probationary officer in learning the policies and procedures of the Kettering Police Department and to "certify" the probationary officer for solo patrol. Once on solo patrol, the probationary officer is monitored until the completion of the probationary period for new hires, which is one year. The program can be lengthened or shortened, based upon the performance of the probationary officer..

The program itself consists of five steps. The probationary officer must successfully complete each step before moving on to the next. The first three steps are designed to be twenty days in length, and the fourth step, or shadow step, is three weeks. During this period, the probationary officer is required to submit weekly reports documenting progress and also has a weekly meeting with the FTO coordinator to discuss performance. The fifth step, or solo patrol status, is the remainder of the probationary period. The officer is required to submit bi-weekly reports during this period. The officer is issued a FTO manual which gives an overview of the program along with a series of training tasks. The officer must complete each training task for the step before they are allowed to continue on in the program.