At a Glance
Challenges
- No online roll call training option
- Training crammed into a few big sessions
- Difficult to track officer completion
Results
- Short, consistent training across shifts
- Content relevant to what officers do every day
- Efficient delivery and completion tracking
The Challenge
"With Roll Call Training, Lexipol has done all the work for you.”
Before Roll Call Training, the Clayton (OH) Police Department (CPD) didn’t have a regular training component built into its shift briefings. Instead, the department bundled nearly all its training into a handful of large annual sessions. “We typically were not doing a lot of roll call training because it’s a lot of work trying to chase people down,” Chief Paul Nabel says. Without an online component, getting every officer trained and signed off during roll call meant supervisors spending a week or more tracking down personnel across shifts, days off, and outside details.
Because of that logistical burden, the department reserved roll call training for situations that couldn’t wait, such as a new court decision or new equipment rollouts. Everything else got packed into annual use-of-force or firearms training instead. “It was easier to do traditional training and bundle it together,” Chief Nabel says.
It wasn’t that the department didn’t see the value in providing training at roll call, but they didn’t have a way to deliver it without turning it into a “logistical nightmare” for supervisors.
The Solution
As a Lexipol Policy customer since 2019, the CPD was selected to beta test Roll Call Training. “Lexipol has done good things for agencies with policy and risk mitigation, so when they introduced Roll Call Training, we were immediately interested,” Chief Nabel says. Because the training is managed online, “we can get it out to the masses, everyone gets the same content, and completions are tracked digitally.”
The five-minute video format, paired with talking points and guided discussion questions, gives supervisors an easy way to lead a real conversation without writing their own material. “It’s nice that it’s a quick refresher,” says Lieutenant Shawn Schutte. “It’s not too much for anyone to take in when they’re inundated with calls. We don’t feel like it’s burdening our officers.”
Having watched other training initiatives come and go, some of the officers were skeptical at first, but that changed once they saw the content in action. “Once we got into it, they saw it was relevant case law and that it was making their jobs easier,” Chief Nabel says.
Lt. Schutte says discussions have grown more substantive over time, especially when a topic lines up with something a shift recently handled. “Each session there’s been a little more discussion, especially as we find topics that are relevant to what we did this week,” he says.
The Results
Roll Call Training has given the CPD a consistent way to reinforce expectations across every shift. “This has helped us get out consistent messaging right at roll call,” Chief Nabel says. “We know they’re not leaving stuff out or changing it or skimming over it.” He notes the format allows officers to build good habits before something goes wrong, while also recognizing lessons learned from recent shifts: “It’s helping the officers sharpen their tools and their skills.”
Because the content is provided in a ready-to-go format, Chief Nabel says the department no longer has to choose between doing training well and doing it efficiently. He points to a previous training product that required staff to build their own scenarios and talking points, sometimes leading to internal debate.
“It became a giant process where we were spending hours developing content for five minutes of training,” Chief Nabel says. “With Roll Call Training, Lexipol has done all the work for you, so you don’t have to worry about spending all that time.”
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