PTO (Police Training Officer)

In 1999, the COPS Office funded the Reno (Nevada) Police Department and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to develop an alternative national model for field training that would incorporate community policing and problem solving principles. The result of their collaboration is a new training program called the Police Training Officer (PTO) Program. It incorporates contemporary methods of adult education and a version of the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) method of teaching adapted for police. Most importantly, it serves to ensure that academy graduates' first experience as law enforcement officers is one that reflects policing in the 21st century.

This is the first new post-academy field-training program for law enforcement agencies in more than 30 years. Its original design makes it one of the strongest training innovations in decades. This new approach to training is the foundation for life-long learning that prepares new officers for the complexities of policing today and in the future.

Participants will be able to: 

  • Formulate learning opportunities for new officers
  • Practice real-life problem solving activities
  • Increase officer independence and critical thinking skills
  • Use a problem solving approach useful throughout their career
  • Promote the practice of using community members as partners in problem solving
  • Design fair and consistent evaluations

New officers trained in the PTO program enter the field with problem solving skills that are rarely seen at that career level. New officers also display remarkable leadership and willingness to work as partners with the local community members to fight crime and disorder problems. The PTO program is producing officers who have the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude for today’s law enforcement environment.  

The resources that support the implementation of this program include:
PTO Overview and Introduction:     PTO Manual:     A Trainee Manual:      Training Standards: 

Training for your agency is available.  For details call:

Kentucky RCPI           859-622-2362

 Ed Brodt                     Tracy Schiller                          Cindy Shain

859-200-5014              502-777-9482                          859-582-5921

Abstract:  September 11, 2001 marked the beginning of a new era of American governance; one that calls for unprecedented levels of collaboration across governments, organizations, institutions, communities, and cultures to detect, prevent, and respond to terrorist attacks. A community-oriented model of police professionalism has been offered as a way to better enhance collaborative efforts and further facilitate the organizational transformation needed for local law enforcement officers and their agencies to engage in efforts that are more consistent with the overall National Strategy of Homeland Security. Yet, an appropriate training model that better develops and manages human capital and best brings into practice the theoretical confluence of community policing and homeland security is lacking. This paper, drawing upon focus group discussions of local police officers, offers the Police Training Officer (PTO) program as a model that can bring theoretical collaboration into public safety and homeland security practice.

For the Full Article Click on the Link Below.

PTO (Police Training Officer) & Homeland Security