Practical aspects of formation of professional competence of patrol police officers

Abstract

Based on the analysis of the scientific literature, the peculiarities of the formation of professional competence of future employees of the National Police of Ukraine and its components are determined. The specifics of service activity of patrol policemen are considered. It is stated that the level of professional competence of police officers is low, and sometimes insufficient. A set of requirements for the professional competence and professionalism of law enforcement officers has been formulated. Areas of professional training that need improvement are outlined. The practical aspects of formation of professional competence of patrol police officers are covered. Practical tools aimed at improving the efficiency of the patrol training process as a professional have been developed.
 The author's method of forming professionally competent patrol police officers is substantiated, its efficiency is tested. The essence of this technique is to introduce into the educational process of simulated situational tasks, which aim to form professional skills and abilities.
 The pedagogical experiment involved students of the course of primary professional training of police recruits in 2019 (n = 61), who studied at the center of primary professional training «Police Academy» of the National Academy of Internal Affairs (Kyiv). An experimental (n = 31) and control (n = 30) groups were formed. The experimental group included students who studied the author's method, the control group - students who studied the traditional method of teaching. The effectiveness of the author's methodology was evaluated by cognitive and operational criteria. Cognitive criterion was determined by indicators: 1) knowledge of the legislative unit; 2) knowledge of professional and practical direction. The operational criterion was characterized by the following indicators: 1) the formation of professional and practical skills; 2) the effectiveness of scripting.
 The results of the pedagogical experiment testified to the effectiveness of the author's method in comparison with the traditional one. The use of the proposed innovations contributed to a significant improvement of the cognitive criterion «Knowledge of professional and practical direction» (p <0.05) and indicators of the operational criterion «Formation of professional and practical skills» (p <0.05) and «Effectiveness of scenarios» ( p <0.001). It was stated that the experimental group had a larger number of people with a high and sufficient level of professional competence in the selected indicators. Prospects for further research are to substantiate the means and methods of forming the professional competence of police officers during training in the training system.