DHS supports law enforcement driving skills program

A report by the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Fund finds that law enforcement officers face a higher risk of death and injury traveling to the scene of an incident than at the actual scene itself.

The report revealed that vehicle-related collisions are one of the leading causes of death for law enforcement officers.

“Existing data clearly indicates that we need to do more to improve our safety and training efforts for new law enforcement officers,” Jim Grove, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Portfolio Manager to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC), said. “There is a clear need for an improved curriculum that focuses on decision-making, hazard mitigation, tactical driving techniques and other skills that will help our new law enforcement officers navigate real-world situations and respond to emergency scenarios in a safe and efficient manner.”

To help mitigate this issue, the FLETC Training Innovation Division’s (TID) efforts launched a new Law Enforcement Operations Driving Skills (LEODS) training course in Glynco, Ga. The program is supported by DHS S&T’s National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL).

“NUSTL is serving in a data collection and data analysis role to validate this new driving course,” Hasan Shahid, test engineer with NUSTL, said. “We attended all of the classes; recorded our observations on student and instructor performance; noted what concepts seemed easy to teach or learn and which ones seemed to be more difficult; reviewed reading materials, lesson plans, and instructor training materials; and surveyed both students and instructors to get their thoughts on the course.”

During the course, NUSTL staff observed classes, rode along with students during driving courses, and administered over 600 surveys to the 45 students who attended. NUSTL used the data to determine what concepts and strategies worked and which ones did not. The information will be summarized in a report that will be delivered to FLETC in the next few months.

“We hope that the information in this report will help FLETC to improve the LEODS course structure and lessons,” Shahid said. “Since this course is so new and many instructors are teaching this new curriculum for the first time, we think that this is a good opportunity to assess this course and provide our findings to FLETC.”

The LEODS course is one of many that will take place at FLETC in the coming months.

“The LEODS course distinguishes itself from other existing curriculums in that it is designed to provide in-depth experiences and coursework that will expose new law enforcement officers to real-life scenarios and really teach them the various skills and strategies that will help them to be well-versed at law enforcement driving,” Tommy Barron, branch chief of the Basic Driving Branch of FLETC, said.