Award Date

1-1-2007

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Committee Member

Robert Ackerman

Number of Pages

125

Abstract

The rules of law enforcement are constantly evolving and the criminal community persists in developing new and innovative ways to circumvent the efforts of the police. Revolutionary advances in police equipment design and a sociological awakening has created an intense scrutiny of the way police officers conduct their affairs. Law enforcement officers require continuing training to meet these social demands and to keep up with technological advances, the ever-changing laws, and critical developments in the criminal world; Because high profile civil rights cases have involved devastating monetary judgments against the agencies involved, police administrators across the country have established training programs for their officers hoping to avoid similar catastrophes. Departmental leaders understand that quality training can be quite effective in reducing liability and they frequently direct their staff to give a high priority to training that is geared toward reducing potential risks; Police officers on the street are aware of these liability issues but are commonly dissatisfied with departmental offerings in the way of training. They feel additional concerns for personal safety and job enrichment, and frequently seek training on their own time and at their own expense; Most states require the agencies to keep the officers abreast of developments in their field of work. State codes normally list the subject areas that must be covered by basic academy training as well as in-service programs; The question of which topics should be the focus of such training usually calls for training needs assessment, based on data collected from practitioners according to their perceptions of the job. However, since administrators make the final decisions regarding the direction of their agencies, training is typically formed according to their wishes, addressing liability issues in spite of recommendations from department training personnel. This can leave the program wanting for those topics that officers may feel are important to enhance their job performance or to maximize their personal safety. Only recently have agencies begun to proactively develop training strategies based on in-depth training needs assessment; This study investigated the difference in the perceived need for training between top administrators, training officers, and patrol officers in the Southern Nevada community. The data obtained provides valuable assistance for administrators and their staff in creating more effective and efficient training programs; The data were collected by on-line survey. Top administrators, training officers, and patrol officers of the various law enforcement agencies in the Southern Nevada area were invited to participate in the survey to gather pertinent information regarding the participants' own perceptions about police training needs. The responses were evaluated by frequency distribution and chi-square goodness of fit test to determine whether or not a statistically significant difference exists between the perceptions of the administrators, training officers, and patrol officers.

Keywords

Administrators; Basic Academy; Enforcement; Law; Law Enforcement Officers; Officers; Patrolmen; Perceptions; Police Training; Patrolmen

Controlled Subject

Vocational education; Public administration

File Format

pdf

File Size

3041.28 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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