By Mike Warren, Instructor, Word® & Adobe® for Public Safety™

Many people find the task of preparing training materials and documenting completion of training to be a daunting task.  Developing materials for an 8-hour in-service training day are typical.  The instructor knows they will need at a minimum: a written manual or handouts, PowerPoint presentations and evaluations.  Each of these can take hours to develop from scratch, but with a little instruction these tasks become much easier.

When preparing for a training session, most trainers begin by developing a PowerPoint.  Once the presentation is completed, a handout is produced by printing slides or notes pages with the slide.  Not only is this the least efficient method of creating a presentation but, the handouts are not conducive for the student to use to take notes.  To maximize efficiency and to provide the best possible handout materials it is best to begin with Word and to use a single document to create the additional materials.

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Click image to see Doug Nolte on AC 360

It’s not every day you get to be on an internationally recognized news program.  And it’s not every day that Anderson Cooper, host of AC 360° on CNN, calls you the “Greatest Public Information Officer in the world” but both of these happened to Police Technical Instructor Doug Nolte (Social Media Methods) recently.

After a spate of episodes involving missing marijuana from the Wichita Police Department’s evidence room, Doug Nolte in his regular briefing to local media, introduced an artist sketch of the likely suspect:  a mouse.  The tongue-in-cheek briefing aired on local broadcast television in Kansas then began a life of its own.

The story was quickly picked up by law enforcement media outlets like policeone.com, and gained further national traction after being picked up by CNN.  Within days, the story made it to Anderson Cooper’s evening news show AC 360°, appearing on the “The RidicuList”, a parting spot piece at the end of the program covering amusing stories and events.

Being a Public Information Officer requires a professional demeanor and ability to communicate effectively with the public.  It doesn’t however, require a somber 24/7 presentation of “the facts” to the world.  Managing social media channels within a law enforcement environment requires a different approach than the historic role of a department PIO.  The ability to effectively communicate messages in this medium, in a way that the public will understand, and perhaps more importantly, appreciate and participate in, is the focus of Doug Nolte’s course Social Media Methods.

It’s not every day a police department is recognized by a major news program in a positive light.  It should be noted that he public’s response to this story, judging from Facebook and twitter, has been overwhelmingly positive as well.  This level of positive “press”, and the subsequently positive reaction from the public, cannot be purchased at any price, but is available for free for personnel and agencies that understand, plan, and leverage their own social media channels.

For more information about Social Media Methods by Doug Nolte contact info@policetechnical.com.

Click here to see Doug Nolte on AC 360

Police Technical is growing (again) and we are excited about the developments for 2013.  We’ve added 4 new instructors; giving us a teaching cadre of 12 instructors.  Below are the short instructor bios, please contact us if you are interested in taking one of their courses at info@policetechnical.com.

Jeff Bickford
Police Officer from the Northwest, will be instructing online investigations with an emphasis on “steet level” operations.

Cory Christensen
Police Executive from Colorado, will be assisting departments to efficiently utilize tablets and smartphones.

Ashley Englefield
Officer from North California, will be teaching personnel about cell phone investigations, data generated by cell activity and evidence based policing.

Ron Shelnutt
Officer from the Midwest, will facilitate courses about law enforcement specific “apps” and helping personnel create their own “agency specific” applications.

It is no accident these instructors come from all over the United States; each one was recruited to teach a specific course in the law enforcement environment.  They each come from a different location but each share a similar background.  They are the best in their field, and Police Technical is proud to work with them.

Please take a look at their full bios and pictures at www.policetechnical.com.   If you are interested in one of their courses, please contact us at info@policetechnical.com for scheduling.