Page 71 - Argyle Police Officer Field Training Tips

Ways to Test Recruit Knowledge

Testing a recruit’s knowledge regularly is a great way to evaluate their progress and help them see what
they need to work on. Below are some ways to test and improve their skills.

Geography

Call out various locations around town and have the recruit drive to those locations or have them
explain the most efficient route from your current location to the location you asked them about.

As you are driving around, ask the recruit to tell you what street is coming up next or what 2 or 3 streets
are coming up next
Ask them what the last street was they passed

Name a street and ask them to tell you where it is located, what are the cross streets or other streets
nearby

Traffic Enforcement/Transportation code

Turn the radar off and force the recruit to make stops for any violation but speeding for that day
Name two or three violations that are easy to find and ask the recruit to use any violation except for
those to make stops for the next two hours or even for the whole day. This forces them to learn more
violations and be more knowledgeable.

Challenge the recruit to find 5 vehicles committing 5 different violations in the next hour. I usually do
this in first phase. I don’t ask them to make the stops, I just ask them to point them out. This is especially
helpful for those officers that are struggling with their observation skills. The reason I don’t ask them to
make the stops is that in first phase, their stops might be a little slow and they might not be able to
complete 5 stops in an hour.

Ask them to explain traffic laws to you while driving around. This is something they will have to do to a
violator at some point or another and you would be surprised how many times I’ve discovered that a
recruit did not understand a law they were enforcing. For example, in Texas, vehicles are required to
have a rear license plate light. The law states it must produce enough light to make plate clearly legible
from 50 feet away. However, I’ve had some recruits tell me they think the light has to be visible from 50
feet away, which is incorrect.

If you have streets in your area that have varying speed limits, name one of those streets and ask the
recruit to tell you the speed limit on that street.

In our town, we have a few locations that get a lot of speeding complaints, so we work them regularly.
One particular area has 4 speed limit signs within a very short distance. This is important to know
because many violators will say they didn’t see a sign or didn’t know the speed limit. If you know the
number of signs in the area you are working, you can politely tell them the number of speed limit signs
they passed and then begin to inquire about other possible violations, distractions, or issues that caused
them to miss all the signs.

Pg. 70 POLICE FIELD TRAINING CONCEPTS