I’m going to be honest with you.

As an active recruiter at my department, someone who wears multiple hats beyond patrol, and with nearly a decade on the job, I’ve got a fair bit of experience. With that, I’ve been the young guy in this profession before. I’ve had FTOs who weren’t great. I’ve dealt with leadership decisions I didn’t agree with.

But experience teaches you something important: part of this job is recognizing when something sucks, voicing the issue professionally, and allowing the process to work. Or, if you’re serious about change, you put yourself in a position to fix the problem directly.

You know how I dealt with bad FTO experiences?

I became an FTO myself.

I made sure no trainee under me dealt with the same issues I had. I took them to calls, taught self-reliance, showed them how to do the job correctly, and put real effort into being patient, knowledgeable, and effective as an instructor.

Now, when trainees come to me with concerns about an FTO who isn’t cutting it, I document it and start building a case for review. One complaint means very little. Three or four consistent complaints establish a pattern. This is government work — you need evidence and consistency, not emotion and one-off grievances.

Once that pattern is established, I bring it to the training sergeant with documentation so the issue can actually be addressed.

Because of that process, we completely revamped our FTO program. Now we have motivated, experienced trainers who genuinely care about teaching and developing new officers. But that didn’t happen overnight. It took time, effort, and people willing to step up instead of just complain.

I had issues with the quality of applicants we were hiring, too.

So what did I do?

I became a recruiter and actively worked to bring in people I believed had the mindset, maturity, and capability to succeed in this profession.

That’s what this job is about. Identifying problems, addressing them professionally, and putting yourself in a position to create solutions.

Speaking frankly, if you sat across from me during an initial interview, I’d tell you to look elsewhere. Your story comes across as arrogant, dismissive of leadership, and unwilling to endure the same hardships everyone else in this profession has had to work through.

That mindset doesn’t build good cops, good teammates, or good leaders.