NCJ Number
136287
Journal
American Journal of Police Volume: 10 Issue: 4 Dated: (1991) Pages: 49-63
Date Published
1991
Length
15 pages
Annotation
A survey instrument was administered to 260 police officers who had participated in advanced in-service training in 1986 and 1987 at the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy (OPOTA). The goal was to determine if the evaluations by officers returning for in-service training matched their preconceived notions.
Abstract
The most important finding was that education was not related to most of the satisfaction and usefulness variables in any systematic way. Neither size of the department, sex of the officer, nor years of experience were statistically or significantly correlated with either the combined usefulness or the combined satisfaction indices. The students did not report great success at generating new leads or opening old cases as a direct result of their course work and did not often use their written materials, yet they still reported that they found the course useful and were strongly satisfied with their training. The one strong argument that emerges from this study is that some of the more cherished myths about student reactions to in-service training may be incorrect. 1 note, 6 tables, and 13 references