Analysis of Secret Service Uniformed Training Needs - Assignment Example

Secret Service Uniformed Training Needs Analysis Assignment Training Needs Analysis (TNA) The Uniformed Division was founded in1922 and was initially referred to as the White House Police Force (US Secret Service, 2015). The department has more than 1,300 officers today and has the responsibility of ensuring security at the White House Complex. The unit also keeps vigilance over the vice presidents residence as well as the Department of the Treasury. The latter is a section of the White House Complex. The same department watches over the security of the foreign diplomatic missions found in the Washington, D.C. area. Uniformed Division officers use a network of fixed security posts, motorcycle patrols, foot, vehicular, and bicycle to carry out their protective duties. Officers have the responsibility of provision of additional support to the Secret Services mission using a number of tactics. For instance, the first one is the Counter sniper Support Unit (CS) founded in 1971 (US Secret Service, 2014). The function of the CS is the provision of specialized protective support that helps to defend against threats that may face the protected parties in the long run. Today CS forms an operational unit of the Protective Division of the president. The Canine Explosives Detection Unit (K-9) established in 1976 is another unit (US Secret Service, 2014). The function of the K-9 unit is the provision of specialized and skilled detection for explosives that may affect the protected persons under their jurisdiction. The third group is called the Emergency Response Team (ERT) founded in 1992. The primary function of ERT is the provision of technical support concerning unlawful intrusion as well as security challenges related to the White House as well as its grounds. ERT personnel undergo advanced, specialized training and must uphold a high standard of operational and physical proficiency. The fourth unit is magnetometers. The Secret Service started depending on magnetometer (metal detector) help by Uniformed Division officers to strengthen its protective attempts away from the White House after the attempted killing of President Ronald Reagan. The Magnetometer Support Units function is to ensure that not all people entering secure areas occupied by people protected by the secret service have weapons The Special Agent Division forms one of the most elite organizations for law enforcement in the world (US Secret Service, 2014). The group has earned such a reputation for over the 140 years of unparalleled service delivery to the nation. Being among the oldest law enforcement organs of the federal government, the Secret Service has dual responsibilities, which include investigations and protection. These responsibilities are the unique features, which distinguish the Secret Service from other organizations. During the course of special agents complete assignments in both of these fields and are available to be assigned duty stations anywhere across the globe. Since its establishment in 1865, the Secret Service engaged in the protection of the nations financial systems integrity. Recent technological improvements have transformed the nature of financial transactions across the world. Consequently, the investigative responsibilities of Secret Service have increased significantly. The Secret Service department has jurisdiction in the US for investigations that entail the counterfeiting of U.S., as well as foreign obligations and securities. Such authority has increased to include the investigation concerning financial institution fraud, computer crimes, fraudulent government, and access device fraud. The jurisdiction also includes commercial securities, fictitious financial instruments, false identification, telecommunications fraud, and identity theft (US Secret Service, 2014). The current authority of the CS includes protection of some top officials. First, they watch over the president, and the vice-president, (or any other individuals next in the succession order). The department also protects the president-elect and vice president-elect. The second is the immediate families of the above individuals. Then, the unit protects former presidents, their spouses for their lifetimes, except when the spouse remarries. The unit also protects children of former presidents until the age of 16. Apart from the mentioned groups of individuals, the unit also protects heads of foreign states and governments who visit the US, as well as their spouses traveling with them. The protection also covers other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States, and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad. The unit also gives protection to major presidential and vice presidential candidates and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election. Another group that the unit protects is other individuals as designated per Executive Order of the President. Lastly, the unit protects National Special Security Events, when designated as such by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Training Needs Issues The United States Secret Service in recent months has received backlash from numerous breaches of security, to unprofessionalism amongst agents on duty, and lack of focus on their job. Therefore, this work will focus on the leadership, officers, trainers, and trainees. This move will be done to figure out what is happening to cause the different breaches in security, unprofessionalism, and lack of due diligence in general day-to-day operation. It was also to address the lack of leadership training and its impact on the work. As such, the officers in each department will receive training that will ensure improvements in their service delivery. Specifically, the training will improve the system’s leadership and improve the focus of officers on duty, which is a part of their professional requirements. The training will use a survey method by the use of a question in the preliminary collection of data. The questionnaire, in this case, will serve as a way that the organization will collect the views of the staff concerning their training needs. This training analysis will use the questionnaire below to determine the training needs for the officers How Important Do You Consider The Following Skills In Relation To Your Job? Not Applicable Not Very Important Somewhat Important Important Very Important Establishment and monitoring of objectives and goals The encouragement of collaboration among the different departments and employees with the target of attaining the goals of your profession Finding and utilizing chances for self-development and continuous learning Realizing and seeking to attain the requirements for your job and the purpose of the uniformed division The need to respond to changes in an organization The need to take timely and appropriate action as a way of overcoming unexpected hurdles in the line of your duty The need to express loyalty and to indicate dedication to the department Setting up and subsequent monitoring of plans and timeframes Select one work skill from the table above that you consider the most important in the effective running of your department Fill in the table below suggestions on how you will work to improve your work skill and improve the efficiency of the Uniformed Division Each training attendee will receive a questionnaire to address their individual concerns about the agency. The questionnaires will then be reviewed and analyzed to target the top five areas that have been neglected or contributed to the degradation of the division. This will allow us to come back and improve the situation with better training. Once new training has been implement another evaluation will be accomplished anonymously to check for improvement. This questionnaire will then allow HR the ability to exam what areas need improvement and where funding should be spent. Assignment 2: Training Outcomes According To the TNA This section of the analysis uses the TNA to identify performance gaps and to establish specific training outcomes. The assignment builds on the previous section. Training Outcomes There are a number of outcomes that the training seeks to achieve basing on the gaps in the system as identified in assignment one. The first outcome will be to improve the first will be improve the firearms marksmanship efficiencies while on duty. The move will help to solve the current lapses experienced where some officers compromise professionalism. The need for professionalism is a mandatory requirement for the officers considering that the nature of their duties demands that of them. The training will seek to make the officers in the Uniformed Division have high levels of integrity at their places of work. As such, the training will emphasize the skills that all officers in the department have in consideration for their requirements. The skills are a vital component of the professionalism of the officers; therefore, the training will serve a session that will impart more skills to the officers. Another training outcome for this process will be to improve surveillance tactics of the officers. The analysis revealed a gap in the system’s dedication to duty as the primary cause of the security lapses that the unit requires addressing. For example, surveillance will help in avoiding cases that degrade the Secret Service such as the fence-jumping incidence at the Whitehouse. The training, therefore, will provide a platform that will remind the officers of the need to maintain a focused mind while on duty through surveillance. The last training outcome will be to improve the leadership of the Uniformed Division because of the consideration that management plays a vital role in the organizing of the staff. The training will seek to streamline the administration of the departments concerned with the secret service because it forms the basis of all activities of the unit. The Expected Performance of the Unit after the Training The training will serve three essential functions. The first will be improve the firearms marksmanship efficiencies while on duty. The officers need to learn professional handling of the weapons, which include firearms As a result, the officers in each of the concerned departments will be expected to work in accordance with the highest professionalism standards. The officers will remember the specific clauses in their codes of ethics that reminds them of their professionalism. After the training, the management of each of the departments of the uniformed division will exhibit high standards of leadership. As such, the managers in each specific department will work to make the units work in collaboration with one another. The training, therefore, will work to impart teamwork leadership skills in the officers. The managers will show critical decision-making skills as well as other associated management skills as their jobs require of them. The last aspect of the behavior of the officers after the training concerns their focus on surveillance. The officers in the Uniformed Division will be more focused on their duties at the end of the exercise than before the training. The focus will be inclined to the understanding of their objectives and that of the whole unit. The objectives will also incorporate the roles that each of the officers will play towards the success of the division. The performance gaps and how training will help close them There are two major gaps identified in assignment one. The first relates to the lapse in the professionalism of the officers in the Uniformed Division. Some of the officers do not have the desired levels of focus on their jobs, which is a part of the professional requirements for their jobs. Training will help the officers concerned to improve the standards of professionalism by interpreting the required levels of commitment to the duties assigned. The latter initiative will help the division to improve the levels of commitment of the officers to their work, which amounts to high levels of focus. The second gap is the fact that some of the officers will retire at the end of the year, which calls for training of new personnel. Most of those that will retire are those in the leadership positions and those that have served their departments for long. The division risks losing its expertise if it fails to train others with immediate succession to take their positions. The training will come in time for the recruits and the new leaders to benefit from the experiences of the outgoing staff. Assignment 3: The Training Plan According To ADDIE Model This section of the analysis will focus on the use of ADDIE model in the formulation of the training plan for the Uniformed Division (Ford 2014). The model contains five critical elements of the program, which will help the officers concerned with the process to achieve the objectives of the exercise. The first is an analysis of the organization’s goals and objectives in terms of the need for training including the target group. The report will also contain the expectations of the trainers of their trainees. As such, the Uniformed Division is a secret service unit of the national security system that investigates and protects the nation from attacks. The unit has officers specialized for different activities that achieve a coordinated effect of national security. The officers have the duty of protecting some high-profile individuals in the country such as the president and others. As such, the work of the Uniformed Division relates to the activities of the White House and its extensions. It means that officers have a difficult task of protecting some of the most popular personnel, mostly politicians in the nation. There is a need for training the officers in each of the departments because of three issues, which relate to efficiency. The first is the need that the officers exhibit high levels of professionalism while on duty. The second issue is the need that officers maintain focused minds on their duties, and the last is the need to streamline the management of the various departments within the unit. The target participants are officers from all the five departments, namely; the CS, K-9, ERT, the special agent and the magnetometers. At the end of the training, all the trainees will be expected to work in accordance with the highest levels of professionalism. The training will remind the officers of the codes of ethics that require commitment and focus from them as a part of their job (Tseng 2014). The training will also impart proper styles of management to the managers and leaders in each of the departments. As such, the managers in each specific department will work to make the units work in collaboration with one another. The managers will show critical decision-making skills as well as other associated management skills as their jobs require of them. The Design of the Training, Its Development, Implementation, and Evaluation The function of this phase of the work is to determine the learning objectives, which will have a combined effect identified in the needs assessment stage. The table that follows indicates the association between learning objectives and the training goals. The training process will last six weeks during which every department will run the process according to its priorities. The teaching and learning methods listed in the table will vary depending on the prevailing circumstances. Therefore, the listed approaches present the choices available for the trainers, which is why they appear similar for all the period. Training objective Learning objectives Methods of learning and teaching The evaluation Duration Improvement of surveillance and Professionalism while on duty To make the trainees aware of the levels required in the nature of their duties Lectures Role play Slides Flip charts Panel discussions Brainstorming Case studies Dramatization Games Stories and fables Videos There shall be a test to determine the levels of mastery of the contents of the training model based on the methods used. The trainees will receive awards of merit and participation 5 hours a day for 1 week Firearm marksmanship efficiencies To remind the trainees of the need for focus on duty To avoid the security lapses resulting from poor focus on assigned duties Lectures Role play Slides Flip charts Panel discussions Brainstorming Case studies Dramatization Games Stories and fables Videos There shall be a test to determine the levels of mastery of the contents of the training model based on the methods used. The trainees will receive awards of merit and participation 5 hours a day for 2 weeks Managerial proficiency To equip the leaders with the following skills: Critical decision-making Conflict resolution Proper communication skills Diversity management Lectures Role play Slides Flip charts Panel discussions Brainstorming Case studies Dramatization Games Stories and fables Videos There shall be a test to determine the levels of mastery of the contents of the training model based on the methods used. The trainees will receive awards of merit and participation 5 hours a day for 3 weeks Assignment 4: The Training Budget This section outlines the projected budget for each of the five departments. The budgeting process is an important aspect of the program because it gives projections on the viability of the entire program. The process will target to train 200 officers from each of the five departments. The costs for inputs will consist video presentations, the simulation games, the resource personnel, and the PowerPoint presentations. Another vote head will be the costs of stationery and snacks. For this case, each of the 200 trainees for every department will have at least a snack costing $ 10 during the breaks. However, the remaining costs will cater for the whole group considering that each department will have centralized training sessions. Each of the departments will spend some money on the stationery, which will include the writing material for shorthand and textbooks during the training process worth a total of $ 10000 per week. The costs of the video games will be about $ 15000 per week for each department while it will cost about $ 1000 for the videos per week for each of the five units. The resource personnel will be hired at a cost of $ 10,000 per week for each department. The training will also pay for the preparation of slides for the presentation process at the cost of $650 per week in each department. The total cost of the training will be $454500, which is an average of $ 75750 per week for the five units. The table that follows this commentary summarizes the budget of the training process. Vote head cost ($) per unit(for every trainee or cost per week) Duration (Number of trainees) Number of departments Total costs ($) Video games 1500 6 weeks 5 45000 Videos 1000 6 5 30000 Resource personnel 10,000 6 5 300000 Stationery 10000 6 5 50000 Snacks 10 200 5 10000 PowerPoint 650 6 5 19500 Total 1000 trainees 5 454500 Assignment 5: Evaluation Tool for the Training Process This section of the report will provide a mechanism for a post-training analysis because of the necessity of determining the effectiveness of the process. For this case, the Kirkpatrick’s Four-level training evaluation model is the best approach (Ford 2014). The model entails the use of four elements that will measure the levels of efficiency of the completed training, namely; reaction, learning, behavior, and results. The reaction levels measure how the trainees reacted to the process. Such a step is critical because it helps the trainer to understand how his audience received the training process. The learning stage is a level that measures what content the trainees obtained from the training. A part of the learning manifests itself in the evaluation indicated in the training model. The behavior level measures the degree to which the trainees change their behavior because of the training (Tseng 2014). The last level is the results, which analyzes the levels of success of the training considering its objectives. The trainer evaluates whether they achieved their goals. As such, the coaches should observe the behaviors and the trends of the trainees determine if there are any improvements. In most cases, a successful training process has the effect of changing the behaviors of the trainees because it provides a learning opportunity for them. As such, the method will help the trainer to observe both the short and the long-term outcomes of the process of training. For this case, the behaviors of the trainees may change soon after the training or may change over time. Therefore, the four-level tool will help the training officers to keep an eye on the progress of their students (Peng & Zhu 2014). References Ford, J. K. (Ed.). (2014). Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. Psychology Press. Morgado, L., Varajão, J., Dominguez, C., Oliveira, I., & Sousa, F. (2014). Balancing European SME Managers Training Contents: Perceived Importance & Training Needs. Business Thiele, L. (2014, September). Reducing Defense Through-Life Sustainment Costs through Enhanced Training Needs Analysis. In SimTecT 2014.Systems Research, 5(2), 4-22. Peng, Y. J., & Zhu, P. F. (2014, November). The Design and Application of Information and Communication Networking Training Needs Analysis Simulation System. In Applied Mechanics and Materials (662), pp. 251-254 Tseng, W. T. (2014). Study of Training Needs Analysis on Personal Protection Specialist. Alresford: Management Pocketbooks. US Secret Service. (2014). Uniformed Division. Web. April 3, 2015 Retrieved from http://www.secretservice.gov/whoweare_ud.shtml Read More