NOTE: The Council also notes that certified RLEOs moving into Florida from other states are also given absolutely NO credit for prior training or experience, while former full-time LEOs moving in from other states are given significant credit, usually requiring only a 2-week orientation course. This denies Florida agencies access to RLEOs willing to continue their reserve careers -- a true loss to the community, to the detriment of the public's safety.
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Dear Council,
I read your RSS feed about the prevalence of RLEO's and the need to make expansion a national policy objective. In Florida, we face dwindling numbers due to boredom and lack of expansion of duties. Key to that issue is the requirement that changing RLEO classes here requires a COMPLETE redo of the entire application, academy, and FTO process.
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We have 3 classifications in Florida; a auxiliary officer, a fully certified auxiliary, and a fully certified officer. To become any of the 3 levels you are required to go through the background check process, an academy (the auxiliary is about 400 hours less), a high liability training phase, and an FTO process.
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If by chance (and this has happened on several occasions) you want to move from an auxiliary to a fully certified auxiliary, you have to repeat the entire process again. Application, background check, physical, full academy (including repeating the portions you already took), high liability training and FTO. It doesn't matter if you've been an auxiliary for 1 day or 3 decades, it's the exact same process.
Then, if you choose to pursue full-time employment (this has happened as well), you have to repeat the entire process again.
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It doesn't take a cynic to suspect an unholy alliance between the FDLE and the colleges that offer the academy curriculum.
Below is correspondence I sent to the head of FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement, they set the requirements for the certification classes). Feel free to use any or all of this entire email as you see fit:
Mr. George,
I am contacting you for the purpose of bringing to your attention a challenge facing currently certified Auxiliary officers in Florida and to ask for your opinion and / or assistance in identifying potential improvements.
Executive Summary: Currently Auxiliary/Reserve officers with active certification (to include annual training requirements / FDLE standards), despite anywhere from 16-160 hours of patrol experience per month for years if not decades, are required to complete the same process as a civilian to become fully certified. I am requesting, in light of the current economy and manpower shortages, that the commission entertain the possibility of "right sizing" the requirements to reflect the experience and outstanding ongoing training that Auxiliary / Reserve officers receive.
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As you are aware, currently the basic recruit academy hours total 770 hours and the auxiliary officer total 319 hours, a difference of 451 hours. In addition, auxiliary officers (at my agency at least) attend an additional 100+ hours in specialized high liability training, a 120 hour FTO process, and an additional 24+ hour specialized auxiliary FTO process. Once that process is complete, additional training is provided on a monthly basis ( to include, but exceed, the FDLE requirements) as well as an annual training refresher which includes re-qualifying in both physical agility and firearms.
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For many Auxiliary officers, this is just the tip of the iceberg. It is not uncommon for these officers to spend in excess of 100 hours per month conducting patrol operations as a separate unit (two to a car) or riding with a fully certified officer. As demonstrated by the choice to invest these hours for free, this is our passion and the learning process is typically accelerated, fueled by the intense energy and focus that is granted when pursuing one's passion.
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For officers such as myself however, a plateau is reached at around the 5th or 6th year. The plateau is reached when copious experience has honed and clarified the textbook learning of the academy and you start to feel a certain mastery of your assigned limited duties. When combined with the observation of how busy the "regulars" are, that quickly leads to the desire to do more to help out the men and women that do this full-time. I'm not referring to participating in high risk automatic weapon SWAT style raids; I'm talking about handling late reported thefts, shoplifting, recovered stolen vehicles, and other low risk / low liability (if there is such a thing) calls, preferably as a solo officer to further increase flexibility and visibility.
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Therein lies the rub. For those (like myself) that didn't take the time to educate themselves on the differences between being Batman (fully certified) or Robin (auxiliary) before starting the process, the upgrade penalty is steep. As it currently stands, an auxiliary such as myself that has over 10 years (close to 5,000 total hours) of exemplary performance, no reprimands, and over 20 commendations combined with 10 years of ongoing training, would need to complete the entire process over from scratch. A typical civilian, who had never held a gun before, driven a police car, or made an arrest, would follow the EXACT same path I would need to follow. In essence, all of our training is negated and deemed irrelevant despite the fact that the majority of the training is FDLE governed and mandated.
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To further confuse the subject, compare that to the path of a fully certified officer that wanted to be a fully certified Reserve. Take an average "non-patrol" full-time officer with 25 years of service. Odds are the academy that they attended was drastically different and much shorter 25+ years ago. They've had the ongoing inservice training (like the auxiliary), but have been assigned to a "support" role and as such have only done the one patrol shift per month required in our agency. That translates into 1,440 hours of patrol experience over a 10 year period, arguably 1/3 that of a patrol oriented auxiliary. The process for them to go from fully certified to fully certified auxiliary? A one page memo.
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In summary, I am asking the FDLE CJSTC to review the process to transition from auxiliary to fully certified (and vice versa) and verify that the steps are logical, practical, and yet still maintain the overaching goal of officer safety and excellence in serving our communities. There are a fair number of motivated, passionate auxiliary officers that are yearning to further contribute to our agencies at very little cost to the agencies and taxpayers. I feel that it would be an unjust and politically unwise choice to continue making it such a formidable obstacle to volunteer more time and contribute more effectively.
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I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with you or your representative if you are interested. As a citizen of Hillsborough County with no ulterior motive other than to be more fully engaged, I belive I could offer some creative and "pure of heart" suggestions and ideas.
Sincerely,
Todd Ryan
