Later this year the Bell Helicopter Training Academy will begin offering a two-day tactical flight officer (TFO) or “spotter” training course for law enforcement officers. Bell announced the course at the Airborne Law Enforcement Association convention this past summer. “There’s been a lot of interest in the course,” said Trey Wade, director of Bell Training Academy. Wade said that law enforcement agencies of all sizes have expressed interest, even ones with established in-house training departments.
“Even the large departments don’t do the transition from the police car to the helicopter very well or very efficiently,” Wade said. “Right now there is no national standard in the industry on how to conduct this training and most of the training is done on actual calls, even at the larger police forces.” Wade said the course is “the safest way to conduct this training at a high level anywhere in the industry.”
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