Institute for Forensic Imaging examining strategies for law enforcement training

By Will Fay

No, computers can't replace firing ranges.

But high technology and law enforcement experts brought together by IUPUI's Institute for Forensic Imaging say computers, the Web and CD ROMS can help Indiana's 10,000 police officers get other mandatory training more cheaply and more efficiently than ever before.

Indiana police officers are required to take at least 16 hours a year of certified instruction, which can range from self-defense and law to first aid and emergency driving. Although the training is vital, it can also be burdensome to police officers and their departments.

Blitzer
Blitzer

"Training police officers is a real problem," said Herb Blitzer, executive director of the institute, which regularly trains police in high-tech investigative techniques. "They are dispersed. To go to school, they have to be taken out of duty, and with the shortage of cops now, that's a real problem." .

Using computers to allow police to take courses in their own homes or at the police station solves many of those problems, according to Blitzer.

And when the idea was introduced to law enforcement officials -- including those from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy -- "the result was overwhelming interest," Blitzer said.

Younce
Younce

Capt. David Younce, basic course commander at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield and part of the team Blitzer has brought together to link distance learning to police training, says it is an idea whose time has come.

"To meet the training needs of law enforcement, you have to take several different learning technologies and form a coherent whole," Blitzer said. "We are saying we know how to integrate those pieces together to come up with a better whole."

The cost advantages of using the Internet and high-tech learning tools are clear, said Blitzer. "Taxpayers won't have to pay for replacement officers, overtime and travel and the tuition is less because you don't have to pay an instructor," he said.

And there is no reason why such technology developed here couldn't be exported around the world. In the United States, Blitzer estimates that training criminal justice personnel costs about $1 billion a year. That figure could be cut by a least 25 percent using distance learning technology, he predicts.