Field Training Officers
26
Field Training Officers
New Deputies
Deputy I Promotions
Lateral Deputies
Academy Graduates
Hours of Patrol Training
27
3
9
15
19,000+
The entire El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office has
been working hard to recruit quality Deputy
Sheriff applicants to join our agency. We have
seen great success in lateral recruitment
efforts and promoting current employees to
attend academies and join the patrol team. The
recruitment team has also traveled to various
POST Basic Academies throughout California to
highlight the opportunities our agency and
community offers. The Field Training Officers
work tirelessly to deliver quality and consistent
training to trainees and set a high standard of
professionalism, integrity and performance.
The Field Training Unit is responsible for
providing training and documenting the
performance of new deputies to the El Dorado
County Sheriff's Office. New hires join the
agency with varying levels of experience and
training. Experienced officers typically require
training in policies and procedures of this
agency and familiarization of the geography of
El Dorado County. Academy graduates require
training and experience in all aspects of law
enforcement making up the full 880 hours in the
field training program. A person who wishes to
become a sworn peace officer with the
El Dorado County Sheriff's Office will receive
almost one full year of training between the
POST Basic Law Enforcement Academy and the
field training program before they can function
as a solo patrol deputy.
Upon being hired, all new deputies complete a
structured field training program consisting of
two weeks of orientation, one week of skills
training, then assigned to work directly with a
Field Training Officer (FTO) for four training
phases. Depending on the prior training and
experience of the new deputy, they will complete
up to 20 weeks of training with an FTO. The
training program is performance based with the
trainee being expected to handle increasingly
complex calls in each phase. The goal of field
training is that upon completion of training, the
new deputy performs independently or requires
limited direct supervision.
Field Training Officers are selected to these
positions based on their experience and skills.
The selected deputy has shown they are
productive, good communicators, patient and a
desire and ability to teach. Upon being selected
as a Training Officer, deputies are required to
attend 40 hours of initial training prior to
beginning training others; then 24 hours every
three years to stay up to date on current adult
learning styles and skills.
The field training program currently has 11 fully
trained FTOs. In 2019, FTOs trained 17 new
deputies for the Sheriff’s Office, with an
additional 10 trainees still in the program that
started near the end of 2019.