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TRAINING
No law enforcement agency will send a new recruit out into the field without appropriate training. All law
enforcement agents are trained in self-defense, use of weapons, rules and regulations of the department,
and of course, the specific duties of the job.
Local, county, and state police departments tend to have their own training programs. In some areas,
these are very localized and individualized; in others, the programs are consolidated and regionalized. In
a very small police department, this training may be on a one-to-one basis and may consist largely of on-
the-job training by the side of a mentor. Larger jurisdictions have police academies at which recruits
receive training in organized programs for a prescribed period of time.
Some state and local law enforcement agencies have made special arrangements for experienced
officers to receive advanced, specialized training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
(FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia. This specialized training for seasoned officers includes subjects like
Advanced Law Enforcement Photography, Cargo Theft, Advanced Arson for Profit Investigation,
Advanced Explosives Investigative Techniques, Undercover Investigative Techniques, and Child Abuse
and Exploitation Investigation, mostly in two-week programs.
With the exception of FBI Special Agents, who are trained at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia,
and Postal Inspectors, who are trained at the Postal Department's Inspector School in Potomac, Maryland,
nearly all federal law enforcement officers receive their basic and specialized training at FLETC in
Glynco, Georgia.
Some of the FLETC Basic Programs are:
· Police Training (mixed), 5- and 8-week programs
· Criminal Investigator (mixed), 8 weeks
· Police Integrated (Immigration Detention), 6 weeks
· Police Integrated (Federal Protective Service Physical Security Specialist), 6 weeks
· Police Integrated (Immigration Officer Basic Training Program), 14 weeks
· Police Integrated (U.S. Border Patrol), 18 weeks
· Police Integrated (U.S. Park Police), 18 weeks
Note: Mixed programs are those in which the participants are from several federal organizations.
Following these programs, many organizations conduct follow-up basic programs for their agency's
specific instructional material. Integrated programs are those in which instruction from the specific
organization is provided along with instruction from the Center.
In all, students from 51 federal law enforcement organizations participate in training on the campus
at FLETC. The training at FLETC is conducted in a college-like atmosphere; the students live in
dormitories and eat in a central dining hall. Students attend classes for eight hours a day, Monday through
Friday. A few agencies conduct training at night and on weekends as well. After classes are dismissed,
students are free to come and go as they wish, but much free time must be given over to study, review,
and practice. The Center does provide coordinated intramural sports activities throughout the year, and
classes compete against one another for fun and physical fitness.
The FLETC campus was originally the Glynco Naval Air Station, and many facilities that were used
by the Navy have been adapted by the Center. These include classrooms, dormitories, recreation facilities,
the dining hall, and administrative and logistical support facilities. Supplementary construction since
1977 includes:
