We hired our first female uniformed officer around 1970. When I was an FTO, and had a woman to train we’d stop by my house for dinner so she could meet my wife & kids. That made a big difference and the trainee realized our relationship was purely professional and things were more relaxed after that.

What a great FTO experience. I remember my FTO told I was just a paycheck to him 😂

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Hello Lt. Sgt. Doug here! I feel for you Lt. I was new and young officer. Just out of the Marines, college and the academy. I was gong ho! The old guys were lazy! Buying their time until retirement. They kept switching me to other FTOs old guys! Until they gave up they put me with a younger guy on 2 or 3 years. He was an Army Ranger and I was a Marine Force Recon Sniper. We were buddies for 10 years until I got on SWAT. HE made detective. We both hung out still we were both married. Everything changed. After my 2nd year I got my first robbery call, this was 1997. Silent alarm East end of town in our plaza. It has several shops, of all kinds like a mall. There was a jewelry store in this mall. The call came from that. I just got done with a chapter 51 at the hospital. I informed dispatch 10-7 to 10-31. They told me back up was 10 min away. I was 2 min from the plaza. I gave our dispatch a 10-4 and rolled into the plaza. I can see 3 hooded armed suspects inside but no get away car. I proceed out the plaza and to the back of the plaza calling dispatch on my radio of the 3 perps inside with fully autos. I got to the back and pulled in hiding my squad from the get away car just 50 yards away. There were 2 big garbage containers blocking my squad from the driver in the get away car. I called dispatch and gave them a Set a rep. Dispatch told me backup is 6 min away. I got out 2 stop sticks and put them below the ramp of the exit and enter drive way. I used the trees and bushes not to been seen by the get away vehicle. He was watching the back door the hole time. I called dispatch and gave them a Set Rep. My Lt. Told me to take cover were all 2 min away! I go I have behind the garbage containers. Lt. Goes good Marine. I told him the stop sticks were in position. Lt. Said great job stay under cover. I go 10-4. But then 3 perps come out the back door of the jewelry store. They had Uzi's, Mac 10 and AK-47. I retrieved my AR-15 223 we just got. Other wise I had my 12 gage Remington model 870 pump. No match for what they had. I called it in to all units! At this time they hit the stop strips and parked outside the drive way. They were looking right at my squad. My cover was blown. I parked my squad side ways like 2 battleships about to slug it out! I called to them to drop out their weapons and the window and dismount the vehicle with their hands up! Over the PA system. I get a F you pig your all alone! Ratatat Ratatat Ratatat bang bang band ratatat! I heard ping ping ping ping wish woah passed my head. I got one shot off hitting the driver in the for head with my scoped AR. I could here sirens as nd screeching tires. I felt warm, light headed, wet and air coming out of my shirt and armored vest. I was hit several times. We had no trama kits or Corpsman's first aid kits. I woke up 2 weeks later from my Comma with my wife and family and fellow officers by my bed. I guess the perps were out numbered from out dept. And 2 more city depts. Next to us. Our dispatch called them. It was 8 squads against 3 perps with nonworking car. 12 cops in total. The perps were using armored piercing rounds. The rounds went through 2 steal garbage containers, a squad and a bullet proof vest. Thank God for the great FTOs I did have. Or I would not be here writing to you. I was shot 3 times in my chest. My right shoulder and one creasing the right side of my head! So from then on I trained our new people at 100 percent.

Do you have any advice for new field training officers? I work for a medium-sized agency in an area with limited resources. I barely had any kind of fto program five years ago when I first started. I was just thrown in the deep end not even knowing how to turn on my lights my first night shift. I literally learned the job through the Internet and getting my hands dirty digging shit up and answering calls on my own. Recently, I took up a small agency in another county just outside of a large city. The county has less resources than my primary department and I have been a field training officer literally since my first shift on the road there. It's a huge learning curve for me. I know that I am my trainee's only resource before he gets kicked to the wolves working solo with backup often 15 minutes out. Things go from 0 to 100 there all the time and I want him prepared. I find it's easy to teach him the paperwork/ equipment, but I'm struggling to teach him things like how to always pay attention to his surroundings/people's body language and how to build a command presence while using discretion on calls. If you have any tips send them my way, please. 😁

That’s interesting you said how you would need to be torn away from your car because you loved working because that’s how I feel I will be.

I hate when I hear that cops are salty about having someone ride with them like I would hope no one took the time to invest in them and they not want to pay that forward especially when this job needs people. I always say I can’t wait to get the opportunity to pay it forward because I’ve met some cool cops so far I haven’t met any sour ones but I’m sure I will.

Did you guys get to watch any firefighters in action?

Quick question how many years did it take you to become a Lieutenant