Police Training Academies During the early and mid-1900s, many departments did not require any training of any type before a newly hired person became a police officer. Today, the police academy is a...

Police Training Academies

During the early and mid-1900s, many departments did not require any training of any type before a newly hired person became a police officer. Today, the police academy is a benchmark for those seeking employment as law enforcement officers as all departments and agencies require the newly hired recruit to successfully complete the police academy. However, there are no national standards as to what is taught in the police academy, who is qualified to be an academy instructor, or how subjects are taught. States have training standards for police academies but often these are only brief guidelines regarding the topics to be included and the number of hours of instructions. The topics and hours vary widely as some police academies require only a few hundred hours and others require more than a thousand hours. Some states, such as California, will even accept the completion of an approved program offered by the community college in lieu of completion of the police academy. Thus, police academies differ from state to state and from agency to agency. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of national standards for police academies regulating such areas as subjects taught and the hours of training, qualifications of instructors, and standardized testing of recruits?