It was six years ago that I first put to paper my designs for an in house 40 hour training course. The plan was a full year ahead of the State's regulation that would expand the eight hour Powers to Arrest training to a full forty hours of instruction known as AB2880.
My 40 hour course would apply to all newly hired employees, and would closely parallel the BSIS model in terms of its content. There was the mandatory Cultural Diversity, and Observation and Documentation courses which were required to be completed within the first six months of employment. Once done, an employee was classified as "Security Guard 1". If an individual was so motivated he/she was open to further their career prospects and go all-out for the "Security Guard2" classification which included the basic BSIS firearms and baton courses. In completing these courses, an employee was then eligible for promotion to vehicle patrol assignments.
Now all of this sounded great as a concept and was eventually accepted by BSIS as our official training policy. However, in practice this was a course we never taught. Because not one of the employees whom we hired in 2003-04 made it beyond their first six months with the company. This was not for a lack of communication on our part.We had spelled out what our expectations were right at the start, and followed up with reminders at the three month mark, and finally near the end ; "Time is running out...” Some were surprised that we would actually let them go for failing to complete the training. Others seemed puzzled. But none complained. They simply picked up their final wages and left.
The fact that AB2880 became law on July 1st, 2004 did not change the dynamic. The few newly minted officers we came across had only eight hours of initial training. One by one, they too fell off the roster for their refusal to follow up with the balance of their required training. For the time being, I decided it would be better for us to simply stay with the sure thing of choosing from the still large populace of pre-AB2880 applicants.
While this satisfied BSIS regulatory requirements, there was still the issue of my own 40 hour training program. In its first incarnation, the bulk of the curriculum would be taught at one of the local security training schools. At that time, I was looking to train entry-level employees to work in unarmed fixed post assignments. However, by now, I had decided that Select Patrol would focus itself exclusively as a provider of vehicle patrol services, and would no longer market fixed post services. Thus eliminating a path for entry level workers. I had to go back and re tool my program to meet the training requirements of armed patrol officers.
My challenge was not so much in identifying the specific skills needed to perform successfully as a vehicle patrol officer as much as it was to be able to learn these well enough to teach to others. Some of the more unique skills had to do with the firearms. In addition to shooting skills, an armed patrol officer must also know how to guard against his/her weapon from being snatched from its holster and used against the officer.
Unfortunately ,Weapon Retention is not something that is taught at most of the security training schools that I am familiar with here in the L.A. area. Now, there are those out of state schools with the cool names, but I did not have the budget to send my people to any of those.For this, Ed Aguero, our day patrol supervisor, and I studied Lenny Magill's Handgun Retention Techniques DVD. While I can't say that Ed and I became black belt masters from watching a single DVD, we did learn some techniques that my people had never been exposed to previously.
For our class on verbal communication, we used the performance evaluations designed by Lt. Phillip Satterfield. This is an old but highly practical method of role playing scenarios that many security firms have utilized for over 20 years. This addresses the most difficult part of any security officer's job; dealing with people. We could see the frustration that some of our students felt as they attempted to verbally maneuver with angry clients, quarrelling couples and the mentally disturbed. This was probably the only "practice" our people would receive ahead of finding themselves in a real encounter. Here they could see that getting angry themselves did nothing to calm a tense situation. A lesson better learned in our classroom than on the job.
The final class in the series has to do with emergency preparedness, and our overall disaster plan. A new item we added to our trucks this year is a basic emergency survival pack for the officer's survival following a disaster - most likely an earthquake. In addition to a food bar, and water we included a hart hat, work gloves and a 100 foot length of kermantle rope. The idea is that an officer can toss a rope to someone who may be down a hillside or an embankment. As part of the training I taught the class how to tie five basic knots; square knot, two-half hitches, Bowline a figure eight and a sheets bend. It took me a week to learn, but to my surprise my students had the figure eight mastered in about five minutes. A teacher's joy.DW
