Field Training Officer (FTO) Program

 

Attrition Rate

Mesa Police started training its own recruits in an Arizona Police Officer Standards and Training (AZPOST) Certified Academy in 1994. The cost of training a recruit exceeded $60,000 per recruit. Mesa was losing too many recruits in the Academy and the FTO Program, which was consuming too many financial resources. In the spring of 1997, the FTO Unit.oped a Strategic Plan to overhaul the FTO Program. The plan was designed to retain more recruits thereby saving valuable financial and manpower resources. 

By redesigning the Mesa FTO Program in the spring of 1997, Mesa PD was able to reduce the number of recruits lost during FTO training. The FTO Program had been losing 11.7% of the trainees; it is now losing only 7.2%, more than a 38% reduction.  Redesigning the FTO Program saved the department manpower and finances, even considering the increase in the size of the FTO Unit from one lieutenant to a multi-member FTO Unit.