Issues of sexual harassment, bullying and retaliation have received increasing attention in the fire service in recent years. So it’s no surprise that discriminatory harassment was the top training topic represented in Lexipol’s Daily Training Bulletin (DTB) program for fire departments in 2018.
Departments using the DTB program had access to 120 unique firefighter training bulletins last year, providing nearly 4 hours of training. Lexipol strives to keep the training program closely associated with issues making headlines in the fire service.
An end-of-year summary from Lexipol organizes the training topics into 11 main categories and more than 100 subtopics. General Operations accounted for 26% of the DTBs, featuring subtopics such as fireground accountability, emergency driving and hazmat response. Personnel topics accounted for 21% of the DTBs issued. In addition to discriminatory harassment, this category includes subtopics such as modified duty assignments, promotions and transfers, and outside employment. Safety (9%) and Training (8%) were the third- and fourth-highest categories, respectively.
DTBs use a proven system of realistic and verifiable training to expose firefighters to their department’s policies and help them apply policy to real-world situations. The bulletins are authored by Lexipol’s Training Team and use scenarios to bring policy to life and enhance firefighter understanding of their policies.
“Our Training Team members are current and former fire department instructors, so we benefit from a wealth of practical knowledge relating to critical topics such as firefighter safety, technical rescue, and conduct and behavior,” says Don Weaver, Training Director for Lexipol. “We design our training bulletins to focus on a specific aspect of the department’s policy and present them in the form of scenarios because we know this helps enhance learning retention—the firefighters are being asked to consider how their policy works in the real world.” The DTB program also takes into consideration current events and emerging trends.
To access the complete listing of 2018 topics, click here.