Employee Development

TRAINING

We have high expectations of our officers and provide more training than is required by California's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (P.O.S.T). We pride ourselves on continually learning and improving upon our skills to provide the highest of quality of service to our Ventura. Learn all about our training and employee wellness.

Police Academy
Firearms Training
Training
  1. Police Academy
  2. Field Training Program
  3. Ongoing Training
  4. Required Public Postings

The California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) requires 664 hours of training in the police academy. Our police academy, the Ventura County Criminal Justice Training Center, exceeds that by adding 273.5 additional instructional hours, totaling 901.5 hours, or about 26.3% more training than required. In the academy, recruits receive:

  • 24 hours of Cultural Diversity & Discrimination (This includes implicit bias and racial profiling). POST requires 16 hours.
  • 27.5 hours of Use of Force training. POST requires 16 hours.
  • 64 hours of Arrest/Control training. POST required 60 hours.
  • 40 hours of Vehicle Operations training
  • 4 hours of De-escalation training
    • De-escalation training is covered under Learning Domain (LD) 20: Use of Force, and LD 4: Victimology / Crisis Intervention. LD 4 has 8 hours at the Academy. POST requires 6 hours.
  • 15 hours of Persons with Disabilities training
  • 10 hours of Handling disputes and Crowd Control training. POST required 8 hours.

WELLNESS

Evidence shows the individual actions of police officers have the greatest impact on a community's perception of police legitimacy. When officers are equipped to deal with adverse reactions to stress, they are better prepared to handle situations fairly, calmly, respectfully, and empathetically. By creating a culture of mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing and by investing in our officers, we can improve trust. In turn, this leads to more positive contacts, fewer negative interactions, and less stress, ultimately resulting in increased job satisfaction, a higher quality work environment, and better service to our community.

  1. Physical Fitness
  2. Peer Support
  3. Critical Incident Stress Management Debriefings
  4. Mental Health Check-ins
  5. Asher - Comfort Therapy Dog

Encouraging officers to stay physically active benefits everyone- employees are rewarded for healthy behaviors and healthier employees tend to have fewer injuries and lower workers compensation claims. We require every patrol officer to dedicate 30 minutes of on-duty time to physical fitness.