Technical Training Disappointments

If you have been working as a law enforcement for a period of time, you will run into at least one of these problems. You are not alone!

What problems? The problems that arises once you get back to your office after attending training on specific software products. Here are two examples:

• you are trained in a software to use to analyze telephone records but no investigator gives you records to analyze for a year - by that time you have forgotten how to use the software
• you learn how to analyze bank records using a specific software and, like the situation above, you have no bank records to analyze for a long period of time, thus no practice, and have to learn as you go while the requestor waits impatiently for your analytical results

Here is an example of another, similar problem:

• you learn at a conference presentation that a very cool and potentially highly useful analytical tool is already available on a commercial database system you have, but find out later that your IT system's firewalls won't allow you to use the tool

These are just a few examples of many scenarios involving technical training disappointments you may experience as an analyst. 

What to do?

If possible,  get some records from previous investigations to analyze for practice. Fo the IT issue - see if you can use the commercial database on a standalone computer.

And if you cannot solve your problem, understand that you did not create it.

Managers of analysts need to put in place the strategies of follow-ups to training. Help your analysts get what they need to be successful! Encourage your investigators to use the tools your analysts have.  Understand your analysts' IT needs and make IT solutions a priority, as well as fund your analysts' needs for equipment.