If something is ″like shooting fish in a barrel,″ it means that it’s so easy, achievement is certain. That idiom applies to those who attended the 2010 International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) Conference, which took place on April 19-24 in the Chicago suburb of Wheeling, Ill.
The barrel was the conference and the fish were the presenters of the law enforcement training topics. The conference opened with Suzie Sawyer, executive director of Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS), explaining the importance of taking care of an officer’s family should that officer die in the line of duty. Then, decisions became increasingly difficult as 133 instructor-focused presentations filled the barrel, which included 29 separate instructor and armorer certification courses.
The presenters included many of the ″who’s who″ of law enforcement training. In no particular order, the big fish included Jeff Chudwin, John Meyer, Massad Ayoob, Brian McKenna, Chuck Humes, Dave Spaulding, Laura Scarry, Brian Willis, Dave ″Buck Savage″ Smith, Larry Smith, Bert DuVernay, Guy Rossi, Chris Lawrence, Darrell Ross, John Bostain, Marshall Schmitt, Neal Trautman, Valerie Van Brocklin, Robert “Coach” Lindsey, Alexis Artwohl, Gary Klugiewicz, Travis Yates, Tom Manson, and many others. These big fish were approachable by any conference attendee, and when they weren’t presenting, they were attending other presentations.
Many law enforcement agencies sent more than just one trainer to the 2010 ILEETA Conference. In fact, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) had 25 trainers in attendance. Other agencies with five or more trainers in attendance included 10 from the St. Tammany (La.) Sheriff’s Office; five from the Arkansas State Police; five from the Addison (Ill.) Police Department; 12 from the Chicago Police Department; five from the Columbus (Ohio) Police Department; 12 from the Federal Reserve Police Department; eight from the Mount Prospect (Ill.) Police Department; eight from the Niles (Ill.) Police Department; five from the Montgomery Co. (Ohio) Sheriff’s Department; 14 from U.S. Probation Department; five from the Union Pacific Railroad Police Department; and six from the Walworth County (Wis.) Sheriff’s Office. The reason for multiple officer attendance from one agency was simple–the barrel was loaded with some great fish.
It was good to see a true peer group approach. All fish in attendance filled the barrel by learning formally, incidentally and informally. If you want to be a fish in the barrel, consider attending the 2011 ILEETA Conference on April 11-16, 2011, in Wheeling, Ill. I can hardly wait until I can jump into next year’s barrel!
