FLETA Program Manager Billy McLeod presented a case study along withJim Kirkpatrick, PhD. to the Training Officers Consortium during theirAnnual Institute April 22-25, 2012. The Federal Law EnforcementTraining Centers authorized Mr. McLeod to use data from the FLETC BoatOperators Antiterrorism Training (BOAT) program. The purpose for Mr.McLeod’s study was to identify a viable process for federal lawenforcement agencies to use in evaluating how well a law enforcementtraining program contributes to mission accomplishment and organizational performance goals.
Mr. McLeod initiated the study as a result of revised OPMregulations (5 CFR Parts 250 and 410) and guidance provided in the OPMTraining Evaluation Field Guide, Demonstrating the Value of Training atEvery Level. “I want to thank the FLETC leadership for supporting myresearch and Dr. Kirkpatrick for his collaboration,” stated Mr. McLeod.“FLETC training programs are unique because they must meet missionrequirements for many federal, state, and local law enforcementagencies. I felt it was important to analyze a program that supportedmore than one mission or one organization because that will be thechallenge many agency senior leaders will need to overcome, how toevaluate a return on mission when the mission depends on the agency andhow to evaluate a return on mission when the mission is stoppingterrorism.” Mr. McLeod analyzed several years of participant feedbackduring and after attending the BOAT program, feedback from supervisorson graduate performance, and conducted additional evaluations on howgraduates have applied the learning on-the-job.
Mr. McLeod’s findings demonstrated that not only was the BOATprogram meeting the Return On Expectation by addressing the President’sNational Strategy on Maritime Security, but it is also havingsignificant additional impacts on daily operations and officersafety.