Interagency drug training.

The illicit drug industry in the United States changes constantly. Many factors can influence emerging trends in the drug trade. For example, law enforcement efforts might force cocaine cartels to alter their importation routes into the United States; domestic transportation networks often adjust their concealment methods when distributing drugs throughout the country as a result of law enforcement scrutiny; and the principles of supply and demand determine the amount and price of drugs in various locations.

Law enforcement officials nationwide must contend with these continuous modifications in drug packaging, street names, prices, methods of transportation and concealment, and the major players who control drug trafficking operations on the streets. Drug traffickers know no boundaries; therefore, drug investigations often transcend the jurisdictional limits of investigating agencies. One of the best ways to create an environment conducive to cooperative multijurisdictional investigations is for neighboring agencies to train together.

BENEFITS

Enhanced Cooperation

When officers from different agencies train together, they become familiar with one another's personnel and agency operations. This knowledge lends insight to officers' expectations of other agencies when they embark on a multijurisdictional investigation. They know one another's strengths and resources and can structure investigations to take advantage of those attributes. The shared training experiences foster greater cooperation on the job.

Exposure to Other Investigative Techniques

Agencies often approach similar investigative dilemmas in different ways. Whether the choice of investigative approach is driven by available resources, investigative expertise, or merely investigative prerogative, law enforcement officers learn from one another when they train together. They can broaden the range of available options and see how to apply those options to their own cases.

Exchange of Information

During joint training programs, officers often share their experiences and intelligence information. The contacts and relationships developed in class usually remain intact when officers return to their departments, where they continue to share information. This exchange is vital to conducting successful drug investigations because crimes being investigated in one jurisdiction for the first time might have been handled several times in another jurisdiction.

For example, crack cocaine first showed up on the streets of New York City in the mid-1980s. By the time this substance infiltrated the suburbs of New Jersey, New York City law enforcement officials had extensive experience in dealing with the drug. New Jersey officials benefited from the experience of their New York counterparts.

Evaluation of Critical Incidents

Officer safety is paramount in any type of law enforcement operation. Drug investigations can involve more risk than other law enforcement endeavors because of the nature of the offender. Officers in departments that conduct numerous drug operations and deal with thousands of confidential informants and suspects each year inevitably encounter dangerous situations and critical incidents.

During interagency training, officers can disseminate the lessons learned from their post-critical incident studies and evaluate other ways to handle such incidents. This benefits everyone involved and even might save the life of a colleague facing a similar situation in the future.

Efficient Use of Resources

Interagency drug training provides a cost-effective means of obtaining quality instruction. Instead of an agency with limited resources spending a large percentage of its training budget (for airfare, lodging, rental vehicle, meals, etc.) to send one person to a distant training site, several agencies can share the cost of a regional training program.

Participating agencies can pool instructors, equipment, facilities, and other resources so that more officers can benefit from them. In addition, federal grants sometimes are available to support such regional training initiatives.

PROGRAM DESIGN

Several key components make interagency drug training programs effective. These include enrolling students from all ranks and different agencies, using experienced investigators as instructors, and developing a dynamic, up-to-date curriculum that uses practical exercises to complement classroom instruction.

Mixture of Students

The very nature of an interagency program dictates that classes contain students from diverse agencies, but administrators also should enlist students across the ranks. Students thus benefit from the experience of other officers, as well as from procedural differences among agencies.

Instructors should arrange classroom seating to distribute uniformed, undercover, and supervisory officers throughout the room. Individuals from the same agency should not sit together. At the New Jersey State Police Academy, students submit applications detailing their years of service and experience working drug cases. This allows instructors to predetermine the seating arrangements so that officers from the same agency and similar experience are dispersed equally throughout the class. Such carefully orchestrated seating encourages more interaction and communication among the students.

Instructional Staff

As adult learners, students need to respect the expertise of instructors in order to learn from them. Therefore, drug training program instructors should be line officers experienced in conducting operational investigations. In addition, because the nature of the street drug scene changes rapidly, instructors presently should be assigned to investigative duties.

For example, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Regional Training Center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City draws instructors from a host of federal, state, and municipal agencies. These include members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the DEA, the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service, the New York and New Jersey State Police, and the New York City Police Department. Instructors cover program areas specific to their experience and expertise.

Such an interagency staff provides students with a broad view of the operations of different agencies. Because each instructor covers only one or two topics, as opposed to a program in which a few instructors handle all of the topics, the program's variety of viewpoints and presentation styles stimulates the students.

Curriculum

A successful drug training program must present information on the current drug trends and changing operational conditions. Material offered today cannot be the same as that offered last year. The curriculum must remain dynamic and flexible in order to prepare officers for the challenges they will face on the streets. Instructors who are experienced line officers typically can identify the trends and readily incorporate those changes into the curriculum. Having officers complete a comprehensive critique at the end of each program also can offer direction for needed curriculum changes.

Practical exercises play an important role in drug training. The 1-week programs offered at the New Jersey State Police Academy and the HIDTA Regional Training Center integrate a number of practical exercises into the curriculum. Just as in the classroom, officers interact with one another in simulated drug enforcement operations designed by the instructional staff.

Simulated operations include drug purchasing scenarios, such as buy-busts, rips, and raids, conducted within the controlled, but stressful, environment designed by the instructional staff. Less-experienced officers can observe how their experienced counterparts handle drug enforcement operations in a controlled environment. Supervisors may be assigned the role of undercover officers to remind them what their subordinates face when negotiating transactions with drug dealers. Likewise, uniformed or undercover officers may play supervisory roles to learn the trials of overseeing drug enforcement operations.

Instructors should place practical exercises in the training schedule with an eye toward obtaining the greatest benefit for the students. Role-plays and other exercises should demonstrate and enhance material covered in the classroom. These exercises offer students a change in instructional modes and an opportunity to practice and absorb more fully the techniques and information discussed by the instructors.

CONCLUSION

A successful drug training program provides officers with the information they need to perform their jobs more thoroughly and efficiently. Interagency drug training programs provide a forum in which officers can network with their peers, learn from one another's experience to avoid repeating costly mistakes, and be exposed to the procedural diversity of a variety of agencies. A dynamic instructional staff comprised of line officers from several agencies will facilitate sharing experiences throughout the law enforcement community.

In highly specialized assignments, such as bomb squads, agencies have a history of training together and sharing resources. Yet, this cooperative spirit traditionally has not spilled over into other areas. Interagency drug training combines the physical, monetary, and personnel resources of several agencies to create a program that far surpasses what a single agency could create. Even more important, it establishes an environment in which officers can share their knowledge and build solid working relationships across jurisdictions.

As drug dealers become more sophisticated and vary their tactics to avoid detection and apprehension, law enforcement officers must keep pace. Training together can enhance officers' ability and willingness to tackle the complex multijurisdictional investigations they face every day.

Detective Toms coordinates drug training programs at the New Jersey State Police Academy in Sea Girt and is assigned to the organization's Investigations Section. Sergeant McAllister of the New York City Police Department supervises the instructional staff of the HIDTA Regional Training Center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.