NCJ Number
164084
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 12 Issue: 3 Dated: (August 1996) Pages: 235-249
Date Published
1996
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study examines whether police officers' retention of inservice training information is affected by the type of content presented in the training session.
Abstract
A group of mid-level police managers attended two inservice training sessions on the same day; the training topics were personnel management and multicultural police strategies. The police managers were given three objective tests related to the content of the two training sessions. Through the use of an experimental design, the police managers were administered a pretest immediately before each training session; a posttest immediately after each training session; and a second posttest 3 months after the completion of the training sessions. These objective tests focused on both perceptions of information retained as well as the ability to demonstrate actual knowledge in the two training areas. The results show that there were significant differences in the perceptions of police information retention across the two contents, but there were no differences in demonstrated knowledge. Recommendations for future research on police training involve improving the panel design and broadening the training content focus. 2 figures, 3 tables, and 27 references