Most EVOC instructors are really good at their job.
They know their course layout. They know their agency's protocols. They know how to run a cone exercise and debrief a pursuit scenario.
What they don't always know is what's happening anywhere else.
And that's not a criticism — it's just the reality of how police driver training works. The professional development, if it happens at all, tends to stay internal. Same instructors. Same range. Same conversations. Year after year.
That's the echo chamber.
A number that stopped me
Our reader survey came back recently, and one number stuck with me: the majority of EVOC Insider subscribers have 16 or more years of experience in law enforcement or driver training.
I thought that would feel encouraging. It didn't.
One reader sent me a message after the results went out. They were saddened — and honestly, so was I. Because what that number tells us isn't just that we have an experienced readership. It tells us that the next generation of EVOC instructors largely isn't in the room yet.
Where are they? Who's developing them? Who's sharing information with them before they spend the next decade learning everything the hard way — inside the same four walls?
That's part of why EVOC Insider exists. Not just for the veterans who already know the landscape, but to be the resource the next generation deserves to have earlier than most of us did.
How I got out of mine
I'll be honest — I've been lucky. I've had more opportunity than most to get outside my own organization, and I don't take that lightly.
In a recent interview with Travis Yates, I said something I meant: I'm grateful for how long I've been in this, and for the doors it's opened. Not everyone gets that runway.
But over the years, I made it a point to go find what I didn't know. I'm not listing what follows to impress anyone — I'm listing it because it shows what's possible when you commit to looking outside your own walls.
ALERT International gave me the biggest window. More than eight conferences over the years, and more importantly, invitations inside agencies across North America — Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Denver, Spokane, Los Angeles County Sheriff's, and others. Not just watching programs, but seeing how different organizations think about risk, instruction, and driver performance. While I was in Charlotte, I also completed their EVOC course — another perspective added to the pile.
I spent time at FLETC in Glynco, Georgia, auditing their programs. I went to OPOTA in Ohio to complete their Tactical Driving Instructor course. Just recently, I was down at TEEX in Bryan, Texas. I completed the Below 100 Instructor course — a program focused on reducing line-of-duty deaths, including those involving vehicles. I've done advanced driving through Powell Motorsport and Hanson International, both at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
And it all started at Ontario Police College — where I didn't just learn from instructors from across the country, I built relationships with them. Some of those connections have lasted decades.
None of this makes me the authority on EVOC. What it did was keep me from standing still. Every one of those experiences challenged something I thought I already knew — and that's exactly the point. Every one of those organizations did something differently than we did. Some of it was better. Some of it wasn't. But I always came home with something I didn't have before — and that's the whole point of getting out of the chamber.
That same principle drives something I do closer to home. Every couple of years, we host a one-day seminar and bring anywhere from six to eight neighbouring police services together. Different agencies, different approaches, same table. That's where real information sharing happens — not in a policy document, but in a conversation between people who trust each other enough to be honest about what's working and what isn't.
It doesn't have to be complicated. You don't need a conference budget or a formal curriculum. You need a range, a day, and the willingness to pick up the phone and call the service down the road. Most of them are dealing with the same problems you are. Most of them have figured out something you haven't. And most of them will show up if you ask.
That's how you break the echo chamber from the inside — one conversation at a time.
Most instructors never get that exposure. Not because they don't want it — because nobody pointed them toward it, and the system doesn't naturally push you outside your own walls.
What the echo chamber costs you
When you only ever see your own program, you start to think your program is the baseline. Your standards become the standard. Your methods become the method. And when something isn't working, it's hard to see it — because you have nothing to compare it to.
That's what the echo chamber actually costs you. Not just technique — perspective. And without perspective, you can't grow as an instructor. You can run the same cone course flawlessly for twenty years and still be leaving something on the table.
What you can do right now
If you're reading this and you've been in the seat for a while — you know something a newer instructor desperately needs to hear. The question is whether that knowledge ever reaches them.
Share this newsletter. Forward it to the instructor who just got handed the keys to the EVOC program. Send it to the FTO who's never been to a conference outside their own department. Pass it along to anyone in your network who's trying to figure this out on their own.
The information exists. The experience is out there. But it stays locked inside organizations because nobody makes the effort to move it.
That's what this newsletter is trying to change. But it only works if it reaches the people who need it most — and right now, they're not yet in the room.
If this resonated, forward it to one person in your network who could use it. And if you want to push back on anything — hit reply. I read everything.
If you found this useful and want future issues, you can subscribe here:
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Hugh Anderson EVOC Trainer | Author of Emergency Vehicle Operation Instruction: 5 Steps to Enhancing Your EVOC Training Grab the book on Amazon
