Yes, almost always
Yes, with conditions
No
Neva been done befo
Simple question, I think.
You go out and find a class that interests you and can be easily related to your work. Let's say you are willing to pay your way. Will the department give you duty time to attend, such as letting you attend on a work day or adjusting your days off?
Ours did very rarely until I was in a position to make it happen more often.
I put "yes, almost always", because we could just report it as zero cost training instead of telling them I'm paying and they wouldn't bat an eye.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
Maybe. It depended on the year, the class, and your supervisor.
Historically, we tried to cover ammunition. Duty time was given maybe a third of the time. Can’t tell you what is going on there now.
I voted “yes, with conditions”. We almost never turn down outside training when it’s a class our state puts on that is within driving distance. Same goes for other training ops within driving distance. As long as the training is relevant to your position/future position. Where it gets more complicated is training that includes large amounts of travel costs. Those are tougher just because the travel costs may be more than the class tuition.
Formerly known as xpd54.
The opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect the opinions or policies of my employer.
www.gunsnobbery.wordpress.com
Depends, but generally yes. 100% if it's some diversity in LE sort of thing, then they'll pay for your travel and lodging as well. Something like ECQC? You can probably attend on duty, but all expenses are on you unless it's close enough to drive your issued car to.
Anything the feds host you get approved for, you can do on duty since the feds pay for everything else.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
Mine would gladly let you go to outside training on the clock so long as it was related to the job. Example: Glock armorer school was funded by me but they let me go on the clock and let me take the city car over to TN. A coworker went with me. 2 hour drive so no overnight and certainly no per diem.
Had it been a Sig armor school they would not have due to us not issuing Sigs.
Same coworker informed me of a tacmed school in a neighboring city. Free 3 day deal/RCTA school. Simunitions, fake blood, chaos, taught by SF 18Ds.
Six slots remaining.
We asked NOBODY for permission and signed ourselves up. Printed off the forms, took them to our sergeant, and said “hey, I know manpower sucks and all but THEY’RE sending us to this class !”
Him : “$&:dammit!! WTF??!!” And other niceties and such. He put us on the calendar and we had a blast and learned a ton.
We both ended up teaching what we learned to other cops in a 4 hour block offered monthly.
Win win, right?
Had we asked it would have been NO cause staffing.
Used tacmed and Narcan a lot in my final years on the job. Narcan class also completed on the side as well as CPR/defibrillator training. I was a firm believer in obtaining training regardless of the lack of department training. Used time on the books when I needed to. Bought ammo.
It paid off several times.
Yes.
Old department...maybe.
Similar to Ericks response: it varied quite a bit over the years, depending on your chain of command and type of training. In general, if it was POST certified and was related to your job, you could usually do it. Otherwise, it was 50-50 whether they'd even allow you to use your own time. Yes.....they'd deny vacation requests if you stated you were going to training. During a station level Q&A with the then chief when I was a field supervisor, discussing increasing oversight and accountability, I suggested that providing or approving training to help officers reach the level of performance they were being held to might be a good idea. Chiefs response: "Oh hell, you guys are always asking for a bunch of bullshit training on stuff you're never gonna use. Hey....you wanna learn the job you need to get out there and make arrests!" This from a chief who had been away from 'The street' for well over a decade, and who's experience was largely unsupervised undercover work during an era of virtually zero accountability.
As a Fed I was never turned down my entire career for training I wanted to pay for. If I was on my A game in articulating a need and there was money in the pot early in the fiscal year I often didn't have to pay if I found a good class with no travel expenses.
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