Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC)

At IDEAS, we led a StoryJam™ for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC).

Our objective was to create the groundwork for a definitive story capturing the essence of a new vision for learning transformation.

Two matters drove the need to alter the way that FLETC trains federal law enforcement officers:

• Substantive changes in the world of crime
• Shifts in the diverse audiences that FLETC serves

Now, students arriving at FLETC’s gates learn differently than previous students.

These new students have grown up with computer games and a host of other technological advances. They’re “digital natives.”

In other words, they expect much more interactivity in classroom experiences than past generations did.

Amid the changes above, the world has been evolving.

Criminals use much more sophisticated technological tools, making pursuit and capture much more challenging. In response, law enforcement agencies are adopting new technologies to stay a step ahead.

And to make matters worse, we now live with the threat of terror attacks on both our infrastructure and civilian population. This requires even local police officers to have sufficient training to anticipate and respond to a host of previously unimaginable scenarios.

Meeting Changing Threats

To remain responsive to these changing realities, FLETC needed to quickly evolve many of its elements:

• Culture
• Technological infrastructure
• Classroom delivery mechanisms
• Competencies of its instructors, support personnel and leaders

All the pieces and parts of a compelling vision were there, but they hadn’t coalesced into a unified story.

The StoryJam helped FLETC see that the future is already here — it’s just spotty.

FLETC was already experimenting with WebX. It’d also made substantial inroads in using simulation in more curriculum areas, as well as its structure and processes.

To help them better see that future, we created a 10-minute video telling the above story.

Now, FLETC is using the video to better communicate these realities to Congress and the Office of Management and Budget. It’s also using the video internally to catalyze changes in its instructors’ thinking and practice.