Patrol Sergeants and Field Training Officers Are Key to Law Enforcement’s Survival in 2025
Why Supporting These Key Roles is Essential for Modern Law Enforcement
If you are a law enforcement executive in 2025, there are two critical elements for success this year. Going into the new year, the profession doesn’t appear to have any new or emerging challenges. We are still dealing with the problems that began in 2013 and 2014.
There are some smart moves to make the best of perceived anti-police sentiment and the very real issue of declining staffing. The most important leadership action involves recognizing the two elements that are key to your agency’s survival:
Provide the highest level of support to patrol sergeants and field training officers.
While supporting these roles is necessary during all seasons, in 2025, given the climate of the previous ten years, if these roles fail, some agencies will collapse.
Patrol Sergeants: The Backbone of Street-Level Policing
Patrol sergeants are the backbone of street-level supervision, ensuring operational effectiveness, accountability, and officer safety. (I’m including the supervisors in all specialized units that work the streets such as motor units, street crime and tactical patrols and fugitive units.) As the first line of leadership, they constantly bridge the gap between command staff and patrol officers. They are always multirole, encompassing real-time decision-making, mentoring, and enabling teamwork by officers who would rather work alone. Their visible presence on the road and on calls, the appearance that patrol sergeants provide immediate oversight, model professionalism, and uphold community standards for conduct toward the public.
Their leadership on the streets is vital in shaping the culture of the department, enhancing morale, and ensuring that officers perform their duties with integrity and effectiveness. Consider the evening shift from 5:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., while the chief may be at an event or giving a graduation speech, when there is a significant event, the patrol sergeant is calling the shots for any variety of incidents from a water main break to a mass shooting.
Field Training Officers: Shaping the Future of Policing
The role of field training officer (FTO) has become more critical over the last decade with the difficulties in staffing. I refuse to refer to this as a recruiting crisis as it is far more complex. This year it is three decades since I went through field training. It was not an easy time. At times it was unnecessarily difficult, even to the point that I felt like I was in a can’t win scenario. The program was designed that you had three training officers where you were evaluated in fourth phase by the same officer who you started out. I had five trainers and my fourth phase FTO hadn’t ever done the last phase before, or possibly trained any officers before. If it hadn’t been for my second phase FTO, I wouldn’t have found a career I enjoyed and learned how to make a difference while having a job I looked forward to every day. Thank you, Julie!
Shortly after successfully completing my own field training, I was sent to FTO school for a week. My first recruit, a friend from the department who took the plunge for advancement, but I wound up training someone who was practiced in deception and cheating. But I owe them a debt of gratitude, as from day one I had to know all aspects of the rules, regulations, policies, procedures and general orders. If I hadn’t had that experience, I wouldn’t have taken this role as seriously and it wound up being a benefit, not just to my recruits and trainees, but to my police explorer riders. Many of them are now in middle management and will be command staff soon.
The Southeastern Field Training Officers Association
Last year, I was honored to present at the Southeastern Field Training Officers Association (SEFTOA) annual conference. It gave me time to consider how important and meaningful the role of the field training officer is this current era of policing. I had the chance to focus on how critical it is today.
One thing hadn’t changed: field training is unique where the better you get at it, the harder it is. When you train your first recruit, you wonder how you are going to consume all the time. The more you do it, you wonder how we can possibly achieve all that we have to do in such a limited time to learn and review everything a recruit needs.
As someone who attends several conferences, councils, and summits every year, the SEFTOA was the most focused line-officer training that I had the privilege to attend. It was inspiring to see serious and dedicated officers and training coordinators there to learn and improve in their daily work. Field training officers are literally the gatekeepers of the profession and shape the future of policing. They introduce new officers to the realities of law enforcement and bring the practical application of academy instruction.
One of the arguments that I presented then, and I stand by today, is that training officers will continue to be under pressure by command staff to pass the people they have even if they don’t meet standards. Weakening standards in policing has made national headlines. In the NYPD they got rid of the run at the end of the six-month academy, because people were failing it. The excuse given was that officers rarely get in foot pursuits of that distance. That just proves the point that they don’t get it, and this was after 300 hours of PT/DT training. It wasn’t much more than a brisk walk. We just need to see that you wouldn’t give up. In Philadelphia, they eliminated the residency requirement and loosened up the reading scores.
Each time I was asked to FTO a recruit who was not responding to training, and this was some time ago, there was tremendous pressure to find some way of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Back then, our barriers were time and money, as we had invested in the recruit and money was scarce. The process was so long back than it could easily be more than a year to recruit and train another officer. Some would succeed and some would fail. There was great pressure because recruits were handpicked by the chief’s office. Some of those candidates didn’t have an aptitude for policing and washing them out for failing to meet standards would put place scrutiny on the field training officer.
Invest in These Roles for Law Enforcement Sustainability
Even more than before, today, there will be the pressure to pass recruit officers that are failing. We trained tens of thousands of cops during a time, during the coronavirus era when pro-active policing was banned in many areas. In 2017, I was part of a conversation with a patrol division commander regarding his officers’ activity. “How do I make them work harder or be more productive?” Three years later, he is in a higher rank at another agency -during the Coronavirus Pandemic - trying to get officers to disengage, not work harder or be more productive in proactive policing.
Post pandemic, investing in critical roles such as patrol sergeants and field training officers is mission critical for the success and sustainability of modern law enforcement. By prioritizing resources and support for these roles, departments can create a culture of excellence that addresses community safety. Failing to invest in and support these key roles, which serve as the backbone of effective police leadership and operations, risks undermining organizational stability and the public trust essential to policing's future.
Most of all, we must support our field training officers when they make the call that a recruit or probationary officer is not suitable for the job. Instead of leadership questioning whether the training officer’s standards are too high and persuading them to allow some leniency, we need to cut bait and move on. The risks are too great. Even if we pass a substandard recruit, odds are that something is going to happen and we can only hope they don’t get themselves or other people hurt or killed. Negligent retention is a huge and avoidable liability.
The idea that Generation Z needs lowered standards is a big lie. Our personnel needs, not including federal law enforcement is only about 28,000 new officers per year. That is well within reach. In fact, this year will be the peak preceding a forcasted decline with 3,900,000 high school graduations this year.
The Cost of Neglect: Risks of Agency Collapse
Today, we are seeing colony collapse in smaller police agencies. Soon we will see the same with some larger police departments around the country. The stories are not widely reported but entire police departments including their chiefs are resigning on the same day. The time is now to recognize and provide renewed and sustaining support to the best street sergeants and the best field training officers.
Registration is open for the Southeastern Field Training Officers Association in Chattanooga, Tennessee from May 19th through May 21st, 2025. Several amazing speakers are scheduled. Any staff that is authorized to attend this event will come back with great ideas and best practices that will benefit your entire agency. Investing in your best sergeants and training officers is the smart move that will keep your agency on the right track.
Please keep all our law enforcement officers in your prayers.
Roland Clee served a major Florida police department as a Community Service Officer for more than 26 years. His career included uniformed patrol, training, media relations, intelligence, criminal investigations, and chief’s staff. He writes the American Peace Officer newsletter, speaks at public safety, recruiting and leadership conferences and helps local governments and public safety agencies through his business, CommandStaffConsulting.com. His work is frequently featured on LawOfficer.com, the only law enforcement owned major media presence in the public safety realm.
These two ranks can make or break a career. FTOs are obvious in this regard, but some people overlook how influential first line supervisors can be.
My first sergeant after graduating the academy was awful. Very self centered and only interested in climbing the ladder (he’s a smooth talker so he made it all the way to commander). I won’t go into details but long story short he was told to resign in lieu of termination a few months ago for some extremely unethical behavior.
My second sergeant was everything that first guy was not, and that was when I realized I actually could enjoy coming to work.
I’ll put it this way, my second sergeant was invited to my wedding. My first was not.
Nailed it, as usual. The public only sees the headlines. Roland Clee gets under the hood and explains the costs of ignoring field training.