COVENTRY — It was the one duty veteran police officers weren’t eager to volunteer for: training a rookie fresh out of the academy.

“Everyone put their heads down,” recalls Lt. Robin Winslow, when the shift commander asked, “Who wants to take the new kid tonight?”

That was at least 17 years ago. Today the Coventry Police Department, as do many in the state, has an organized 10-week training program for new officers.

Winslow, the administrative lieutenant for planning and career development who oversees the program, said it’s a rigorous curriculum broken into three phases. Recruits generally trail a field training officer, usually someone with at least three years of patrol experience. “Oftentimes that’s a stepping stone to becoming a sergeant” for the veterans, Winslow said, commenting that the reluctance to take on a rookie cop has been long forgotten. “That’s the first opportunity to lead.”

In phase one, which is four weeks long, new officers learn mainly by watching how to perform duties associated with the various shifts, including day, evening and overnight, as well as going with them on patrols. “Each time they are taking on more and more of a solo role,” Winslow said.

By the time the officers are in the second four-week phase, the role of the field training officer moves from “being a teacher to being a coach,” Winslow said. The new officers may begin to take the lead on calls such as vandalism, domestic disturbances or motor vehicle stops.

For the final two weeks, the new officer is doing most of the duties alone. The field officer would be shadowing in the back of the car or following in a second vehicle during patrols. If it’s the type of call that the new officer has not gone on before, the senior officer will take the lead.

Officer Byran Ricci, a field training officer, said the way to look at the training is as an “I do, we do, you do,” process.

Ricci is among 40 officers who have received special week-long training at Roger Williams University to learn how to teach rookies. At the end of each day, the field officer gives grades to the new recruits on 37 items, ranging from appearance to how well they deal with the public. He rates the new officer on a scale of 1 to 7, from poor to superior.

“Four is minimally acceptable. You start to see them turn the corner when you see more fours, fives and sixes,” Ricci said.

But even with an on-the-job training program, it’s still a challenge to teach all the things a police officer needs to know.

“Adaptability is really hard to learn,” Winslow said “Nothing is a cookie-cutter approach. You have to adapt what you learned to different people and situations. That’s hard thing to teach. Most people want structure. They want A, B, C. The police academy is a controlled environment. Now you are going out into the street.”

Officer Ryan DeSisto said he is ready for street patrols. DeSisto, one of three new hires in this cycle along with Officers Jadine Ferri and Paul Kelley, had been paired with Officer Matthew Blair on a sunny day in April. During that week of training, Ferri worked the evening shift, while Kelley had the overnight detail.

DeSisto, 22, stands by the police cruiser, a sport utility vehicle, with a .40-caliber gun in his holster waiting to begin his daily patrols.

A graduate of Pilgrim High School, in Warwick, DeSisto played soccer and was on the wrestling team. He was drawn to law enforcement because he wanted to serve the public and be a leader, he said.

DeSisto graduated from Rhode Island College with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He has a minor in sociology and did an internship at the Rhode Island State Police.

“I was a [team] captain. I was an R.A. [resident assistant]. You get to enforce policy and procedures. I like coaching and you can help people,” DeSisto said. “[Being a police officer] gives you a variety. You never know what’s coming.”

DeSisto said being in the driver’s seat will be “an added responsibility. You have to drive and listen to the radio. It’s a good challenge.”

Police officers nowadays use more sophisticated equipment to fight crime. Every cruiser is outfitted with a laptop and a global positioning system [GPS] device for easy navigation and communication with the dispatcher. With the vehicle’s computer, police officers can use the cruiser like a mobile office. They can do a variety of things, such as run license plates, check registrations or look up arrest records and warrants.

“Dispatch can send us calls from their console,” said Officer Blair, as DeSisto drove. “We can do our reports. We can send house messages from car to car. We can do stolen-vehicle checks. We can get directions.”

For their first stop, DeSisto and Blair pulled over on South Main Street and parked the cruiser behind a large bush, to track speeders with a laser radar detector gun.

They caught a few, including an elderly man who was driving 43 mph in a 25-mph zone. DeSisto zipped out with sirens blaring and had the driver pulled over. He walked over to the driver, took his license and registration and brought it back to the cruiser. Then he ran the man’s operator license number in the computer, pulling up his driving history on the screen. They ultimately gave the man a warning ticket, which still cost about $85, because he had a decent driving record. A ticket for the full amount would have been $275.

Later that day Blair and DeSisto patrolled Station Park, where they arrested three teenage boys for alleged drug possession. The teens had been sitting in a parked car on a day when there was no school. Blair and DeSisto pulled over and went up to the teens, who tried to get out the car. The officers found a marijuana bud, stems and cellophane wrapping paper on the car floorboard.

The teens were split up, frisked and interrogated on the scene. Back-up was called. Eventually one of the boys’ parents arrived.

“You can usually pretty much see what they were up to,” Blair said afterward. He said he’ll notify their parents and encourage them to have their children tested for drugs.

Blair said his objective for training new police officers is a matter of determining if they can handle themselves. A simple matter may suddenly escalate into something more serious.

Rookies need to learn what they have to do on scene, what questions to ask and what evidence to gather.

DeSisto, who is gearing up for his solo run later this month, said yesterday he feels “comfortable with most things. It’s always the unknown you have deal with.”

lsparks@projo.com