NCJ Number
207937
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 71 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2004 Pages: 47-48,50,52
Date Published
October 2004
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Rochester, NY, Police Department’s criminal investigation mentoring program.
Abstract
An extensive internal and external needs assessment convinced the Rochester Police Department that it needed to offer criminal investigation training to patrol officers. They decided to offer a 2-week investigator mentoring program that paired a patrol officer with a criminal investigator from the same patrol district. The program was offered on a voluntary basis and good participation was seen for the first delivery of the program. The program was delivered by assigning patrol officers to their choice of mentor within each section. The program was evaluated through feedback from command staff and through Kirkpatrick’s Model of Evaluation, which is based on a 4-level model specifically for assessing training and education programs. Overall, the evaluation assessed the mentor selection process, the protégé selection process, mentor program criteria, mentor program models, and mentor program development. The evaluation revealed growth in the skill set of the protégés and participant satisfaction with the program. The concept of mentoring thus served as an effective training method for law enforcement officers.