December 29, 2011
The recruits had their third call simulation day last week.
It was a smaller scale simulation day, as the recruits were officers answering calls for half the day and then acted as the complainants and suspects for the other half of the day. The recruits that were answering calls took turns being the primary and secondary officers on the call.
I arrived at the location in the afternoon, so half the recruits were already successfully finished their call simulation part of the day. They were just getting their roles for the scenarios.
I was able to watch three scenarios including an assault complaint, a spousal violence call that came in from a neighbour, and a misdialed 911 call. Their training has obviously advanced quite a bit from the first call simulation day I attended where most of the calls dealt with bylaws and provincial laws.
Tactical communication played a large part in this day, as officers have to constantly verbalize what they’re doing. For example, when putting handcuffs on someone they have to tell the person what steps they are taking and how they want the person to cooperate.
Like before, after they concluded a call they reviewed how it went and if they would do anything different with the training officer that observed the scenario. Then they wrote out their notes for the event, including explanation of why they acted in the way they did.
Documentation and articulation are a very large part of policing. Throughout the 14 weeks the recruits have been in training, they have had 20 sessions on documentation and articulation.
The next call simulation day is in less than two weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing the calls and officer responses.
If you have any questions at all, feel free to email me at recruitblog@edmontonpolice.ca. I’ll answer the best I can.