The Professional Standards Unit maintains training records and ensures that officers receive the proper amount and type of training each year.  In 2011, officers participated in 7420 hours of certified (state) training including 1796 hours of in-house instruction.  That's an average of 104.5 hours of training per officer. 

The Paducah Police Department's instructors are efficient in several areas including firearms, defensive driving tactics, Taser, pepperball, chemical munitions, defensive tactics, CPR, mobile field force, and baton use.  Each instructor is certified and proficient in the discipline they teach.  Other areas of training include civil rights training and the technique called Verbal JudoTM, a course in tactical communications designed to help officers persuade confrontational people into compliance without having to resort to physical force.

Training Officer Rob Estes is responsible for organizing and scheduling all training for sworn and civilian employees.  He is also the Chief Firearms Instructor and is certified in several other areas of training.  In his capacity as the Chief Firearms Instructor, he oversees all firearms training, weapons, ammo, and upgrades for the department.  He is the point of contact for new recruits and remains their liaison officer until they graduate from the academy.

Driver's Training

The Paducah Police Department is one of only a few departments in the State of Kentucky that conducts regular driver's training usually each spring.  The department has been conducting the training since 2003.  Driver's training is extremely important since according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, of the 162 law enforcement line-of-duty deaths in 2010, 73 were traffic-related fatalities.

The training includes elements of precision driving, emergency response, and pursuit driving including the use of Stop SticksTM.  The class addresses vehicle control, accident avoidance, skid prevention, recovery, and decision-making.

The Paducah Police Department has a restrictive pursuit policy which allows officers to pursue only the most dangerous suspects where the need to apprehend them clearly outweighs the risk to the officer and the public. 

Department Instructors  

The Paducah Police Department utilizes the skills of its officers and management staff as certified trainers.  Below is a list of the department's current instructors.

• Rob Estes
• Captain Mark Roberts
• Captain Shawn Maxie
• Captain Jason Merrick
• Sgt. George Johnson
• Sgt. Rob Hefner
• Sgt. Kevin Neal
• Chris Baxter
• Chris Bolton
• Josh Bryant
• Justin Canup
• Patrick Clark
• Scotty Davis
• Melissa Dillon
• James Robbins
• Justin Rundles
• Mike Wentworth