If you are in charge of officer training or you oversee a local police department, you may be caught off-guard by the poor quality of certain training videos. Specific questions may cross your mind: Will your recruits take the training seriously if the video looks like it was made in 1994? Do the ethics and standards of this training reflect modern law and ethics?
It can be difficult to convey the gravity of certain situations if the situations in your training videos do not line up with other aspects of your recruits’ training. Learn more about why you should take training videos’ quality seriously and why you may need to consider hiring a professional to assist you or your department in creating new visual training materials.
Benefits of Creating New Officer Training Videos
Is your department stressed and spread too thin? Aside from recruiting new candidates, there are a few ways to solve this problem. If the same people (or person) is handling officer training as well as administrative duties, you may need to create a few new training videos to help your people handle the workload. To counteract the inevitable stress of having to hold in-person training classes where every recruit attends the same meeting, consider implementing the following changes after you create new content:
- Let recruits watch the videos on their own time and meet later for a discussion
- Assign fewer officers to oversee the training by creating highly relevant training videos that resonate with your future officers
- Replace older content and make training videos available online
5 Reasons To Upgrade Your Police Training Videos
Why would you need to upgrade your officer training videos when you already have the materials you’ve used for years (or perhaps decades) on hand? Spending the money to upgrade videos may be the last thing on your department’s mind, as you likely have more urgent and pressing issues at hand. However, it may be necessary to bring specific policing issues to light and to make content that resonates more with today’s trainees. Consider these five reasons to work with a professional video production and creative team to create high-quality training materials for your department.
1. Outdated Videos May Contain Irrelevant Content
Over the past decade, certain events have brought to light the general public’s concern with the reliance on militarism in police officer education rather than a focus on de-escalation first. Though many policemen and women wish to fix certain issues they see in their own departments, it is difficult to know where to start. To combat the possibility that your officers are not entering the world as highly trained and competent professionals, you should train them with updated content that reflects issues our society currently faces.
2. Outdated Videos Are (Unintentionally) Funny
If you think those police training videos from the ’90s are funny — especially the hour-long video circling the internet that instructs officers in apprehending leaders of Satanic cults — your recruits will, too. On one hand, hilarious training videos can lend camaraderie and fun to your training, but you still need to convey to your recruits that this is a job to be taken seriously, as people’s lives could be in their hands. Keep the funny videos for illustrative purposes and create fresh content that deals with relevant issues in today’s world.
3. Outdated Videos Are Fuzzy and Difficult To See
Older videos, especially those copied onto digital media from VHS tapes, can be difficult to see and hear if they are not remastered. Even if you do remaster them, it’s pretty that they were conceived, shot, and edited in a different era of video production. This fact alone can be distracting to your recruits, as outdated video content may prompt them to consider how different today’s world is from when the original video was shot.
Consider upgrading your department’s police training videos to include content that was made with current cameras, microphones, and editing equipment to bring timeless policing concerns into the modern era.
4. Outdated Videos May Convey the Message That Training Isn’t Important
Your recruits look to their training videos as an integral part of becoming competent police officers. If these videos look old, contain outdated content, or are filled with messages that don’t resonate in today’s world, your recruits may simply assume that your department doesn’t care about providing them with the materials and resources they need to become good officers.
Your new material doesn’t have to be flashy, but it should reflect the fact that your department understands that policing changes with the times and has moved into the modern era. Today’s recruits are likely digital natives, which means they grew up using technology and the internet as a second language. Whereas older officers and established policemen and women may not care about the quality of the videos, younger recruits will immediately notice that they look “old.”
5. Outdated Videos May Not Take Into Account the Diversity of Today’s Society
Many American police training videos a few decades ago focused on the act of policing itself rather than helping police officers understand the circumstances that may have resulted in a person making a criminal decision. Your recruits need to understand the importance of learning about people who are different than themselves — including those of different sexes, genders, religions, ethnicities, and neurological profiles — and should become better acquainted with their own implicit biases during your training. Creating new media can help address this in a more relevant manner than old training videos can.
Contact MatchPoint Studio Today
At MatchPoint Studio, we understand the power of narrative storytelling in nonfiction situations, whether our clients are rebranding their small business or creating a fresh look for their police officer training videos. Our packages include professional-quality video, audio, and even recruitment videos.
Whatever your business, calling, or walk of life, we’re here to assist you in conveying your goals clearly and in a way that commands attention. Get in touch with MatchPoint Studio today to discuss your wishes and obtain an estimate for the services you need. We look forward to working with you!
Sources:
- https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/police-officer/
- https://www.kxan.com/investigations/panelists-say-austin-police-training-videos-are-outdated-and-concerning/
- https://hechingerreport.org/police-education-is-broken-can-it-be-fixed/
- https://www.ranker.com/list/unbelievable-police-training-videos/jacobybancroft
- https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/909380525/nypd-study-implicit-bias-training-changes-minds-not-necessarily-behavior
- https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/why-autism-training-for-police-isnt-enough/
