The FTO Program is a twelve weeks in-service training program for newly appointed police officers. The training conducted in the program has been adapted from the Field Training Officers Course at the Mississippi Law Enforcement Training Academy.

During the months they receive training in a number of areas: Dispatch, Identification, Criminal Investigation, Jail, Traffic law, city ordinances, department policy and procedure, city orientation, firearms, emergency vehicle operation, and defensive tactics which is a part of a state mandated requirement that all officers must fulfill.

Once this basic training is completed the recruits begin training in the field and assigned to a Primary FTO. The program is interrupted when the recruit attends the basic recruit training program at the Law Enforcement Academy. After graduation from the academy the recruit resumes his field training at whatever point he left. The timing of the Academy attendance during the field training varies depending on schedules of the Law Enforcement Academy. Once a recruit begins to meet department standards in all phases of their training they are released from the program (a minimum of six months) and turned over to the Uniform Division Commander for a regular duty assignment.

Field Training Officers are selected from the Uniform Division with the approval of the department administration. They must meet the following criteria: They must be morally upright in both their personal and professional lives. They must be model officers in both quality and quantity of their work. They must be skilled instructors of others. They must be loyal to the Greenville Police Department in word and deed.