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Police Training in Ontario - An Evaluation of Recruit and Supervisory Courses

NCJ Number
75500
Author(s)
C D Shearing; P C Stenning
Date Published
1980
Length
108 pages
Annotation
Courses for training police recruits and supervisors in Ontario, Canada, were evaluated by means of surveys of recipients of the training.
Abstract
The training was provided through the recruit and supervisory courses given at the Ontario Police College. The survey questionnaires were designed to determine how constables and supervisory graduates assessed the adequacy of their training. Respondents included 317 recruit course graduates and 157 supervisory course graduates. Recruits' responses generally indicated satisfaction with the adequacy of training. The training components covered by their evaluations included introduction to law, police powers, criminal offenses, Canadian statutes, Ontario's statutes, traffic law enforcement, evidence, police procedures, and related areas. Significant percentages felt that more training emphasis was needed in such areas as writing narrative reports, recording relevant facts for occurrence reports, speaking to groups, giving crime prevention advice to individuals, and developing sources of information. Other areas for which more emphasis was deemed desirable included the application of surveillance procedures, appropriate actions at scenes of fires, conduct of a roadblock, conduct at show cause hearings, and reasonable and probable grounds for searching persons. A total of 68.8 percent of the supervisors felt that supervisory training received was adequate. Extensive tables and the survey instruments are included.