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The "Field Training Program" for the Farmington Police Department was formally developed in 1991 and mirrored what is known as the San Jose Model for Field Training. A new police officer, with no prior law enforcement experience, will be assigned three field training officers and, over a fourteen-week period, will be tasked with learning, demonstrating, and showing proficiency in a number of different law enforcement functions ranging from officer safety to courtesy and proper conduct while off duty.

The program allows the new recruit to experience different aspects of the job on all three shifts, as well as the jail, dispatch center, training, and detectives. Only upon the successful completion of this training will the recruit, based upon the field training officers' recommendation, be released to work on his/her own. Field training is the most difficult aspect of police training and is usually the true test of whether a person is suited for a career in law enforcement.

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