Officer Training is constant in our department.

By State mandate, our officers receive the same level of training as county and municipal officers througout North Carolina.

This involves a 602-hour training course in law enforcement, where they learn to properly apply law enforcement skills in a university environment.  This is followed by a further 12-week on the job training program.

Once past this basic qualification, every officer then embarks on a career-long regimen of constant training, qualification and specialized education to meet the rising demands and standards of modern policing.

All of our officers attend regular classes to keep them updated in changes and updates to laws, equipment, and criminal justice training.

These classes range from Domestic Violence Response to Traffic Accident Investigation, Ethics, NIMS, Intoxilyzer, RADAR, OSHA, firearms, as well as the latest Search and Rescue tools and techniques.

Police Investigators also train in specialized areas like Arson, Interview Techniques, Homicide and Armed Robbery Investigation, and so forth.

All officers maintain the required certifications for their position.

OSHA

OSHA is the Federal government's Office of Safety and Health Administration.  Their mission is to help assure the safety and health of America's workers by setting and enforcing protective standards, and by outreach, training, and education regarding those standards.

This includes standard training for first responders to workplace and public emergencies, such as police officers and firefighters.

Firefighters and police officers responding to emergencies are likely to witness or discover a hazardous situation, or hazardous substance release, or both.

OSHA training for first-responders is geared to recognizing the hazards to humans present during such emergencies, and how best to protect people from that point.

The training includes instruction on accurately and fully reporting the necessary information to their dispatcher so that following emergency responders are fully informed and can be fully prepared.

OSHA courses for first responders run from 4 to 12 hours.  There are six key areas that all officers must demonstrate clear competency in before they graduate.

(1) Knowledge of basic hazard and risk assessment techniques,

(2) Knowing how to select and use proper personal protective equipment provided to first responders,

(3) Understanding basic hazardous materials terms,

(4) Knowing how to perform basic control, containment, and confinement operations within the limits of the equipment and resources available,

(5) Knowing how to implement basic decontamination procedures,

(6) Understanding the relevant standard operating procedures and termination procedures.

NIMS Training

The National Incident Management System, or NIMS, is a new training program for our Police Department team and will be for years to come.

The first responders of our nation put themselves on the line every day to protect and help their communities.

NIMS training ensures they are prepared, equipped and trained for any incident, emergency or disaster in their area.

America’s new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) integrates many previously separate and distinct agencies and services into one organization.

The purpose is to better prepare first responders for unexpected incidents and emergencies, and to best coordinate and sharpen their response skills ahead of time.

The time for training and education is before an emergency, not during.

That preparation is accomplished through regular NIMS training.

NIMS is the first-ever standardized approach to incident management and response.  Developed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and released in March of 2004, it establishes a uniform set of processes and procedures that emergency responders at all levels of government will use to conduct response operations.

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) integrates effective practices in emergency response into a comprehensive national framework for incident management.

It enables first responders at all levels to work together more effectively and efficiently to manage incidents and emergencies no matter what the cause, size or complexity.

Federal agencies also are required to use the NIMS framework in domestic incident management and in support of state and local incident response and recovery activities.

Standardization is the key to the National Incident Management System.  This includes standards for personnel, their qualifications, training and certifications.

It sets standards for organizational structures, processes and procedures, equipment acquisition and certification, communications, procedures and systems between responding agencies, computer and voice and data system, and publication management processes and activities.

NIMS is still in the rollout stages, and will not be fully operational until the end of 2006 at the earliest.

Our Police Department has undergone initial NIMS training and education for a year now, and is on track to complete all our courses and certifications for this national standards program.