Curious About Professional Police Officer Training? Learn More About It Here!
Police Officer Training
To be a police officer, you must complete several training programs specifically for individuals in law enforcement agencies. Most of these programs last at least 2 weeks and comprises of substantial physical fitness training for police officers. All recruits in police training programs must meet minimum fitness and age guidelines. Being in the law enforcement industry means a lifetime of continuous training.
What Training Does a Police Officer Need?
- Police Academy
A police academy, also known as law enforcement academy, is a training school for new police recruits. Police academies, also called colleges or universities, have various background checks, examinations, medical requirements, legal training, physical requirements, equipment training, driving skills, and firearm training for new police recruits, which lasts for approximately three months. Police academies prepare the cadets for the police force they will be assigned to once they graduate.
Police recruits in police academies learn about self-defense, firearms operations, and first aid. Training might also include hostage negotiation, investigative procedures, and traffic administration. Some units incorporate high-speed driving skills, conflict resolution strategies, and crowd management in their basic cadet training programs.
Eager police officers must pass written and physical tests at the academy before they become eligible to serve. Law enforcement training programs are physically rigorous, and written tests are thorough, meant to test how well the applicants have learned the course. Final scores are a key factor in the hiring process. While merely passing an exam could be sufficient, ranking above the rest of the recruits is what could make or break your future job as a police officer.
After the police academy, recruits are usually designated to a senior officer for on-the-job training and mentoring sessions in which junior officers learn how to perform their training in actual-life situations.
- Police Training Officer program (PTO)
The Police Training Officer Program is a post-academy training program based on an academic model known as problem-based learning. It was funded by the U.S Department of Justice Office of the Community Oriented Policing Services to train police cadets when they graduated from the Police Academy. It was originally designed to supplant the 30-year-old Field Training Officer (FTO) program, which studies surveys suggested was incompatible with community-based policing and problem-solving.
The PTO program tackles the changing approaches needed for effective regulation today. It is a viable template of teaching new officers on how to interact efficiently and effectively with their communities with the use of adult learning techniques.
- Functional Strength Training for Police Officers
Law enforcement includes multiple physical characteristics, such as cardiovascular endurance, muscle endurance, durability, mobility, metabolic fitness, anaerobic capacity, stamina, and the preservation of a lean body structure. A police officer should train all of these fitness areas. Officers can get the most from their physical training by making muscle strength the main focus and pillar of their learning.
- Police Officer Standards and Training
Police Officer Standards and Training, commonly known as Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), provides peace officers with the training and education required by the state, such as the power to carry firearms, concealed or not, subject to the written gun policy established by the agency employing the officer. Peace officers are workers of a state, county or municipality, a sheriff or other law enforcement agency, whose responsibilities include arrest, search and seizure, execution of civil and criminal warrants, and are liable for the prevention or apprehension of crime or the enforcement of criminal, traffic or highway law. The definition of the Peace Officer could also include those Deputy Sheriffs whose responsibilities include the supervision, protection, and control of prisoners in detention.
- Police Custody Officer Training
Police Custody Officers (PCOs) conduct all roles relating to the management of persons in custody; ensure the health, well-being, protection, and monitoring of individuals in custody, personnel and visitors; involve internal and external partners in the care, travel, off-site presence or videos of persons in custody; and to conduct all prisoner control duties in compliance with the law and defined policies and procedures, including the preparation of daily communications, attendance records, monitoring, and other administrative duties, while ensuring that adequate follow-up action is taken as necessary.
Successful candidates who have no prior experience managing incarcerated individuals are required to complete a foundation course. However, candidates who have prior experience may be qualified for an acknowledged current competency course.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you file a restraining order against a police officer?
If you can prove that the officer is doing harassment, you may be entitled to get a restraining order, and you must certainly report the actions to the officer’s superiors. Make sure you have some solid evidence that the officer is responsible before you make such a complaint.
How to prepare myself to be a police officer?
Qualifying for the position
- Obtain a high school diploma.
- Review your local agencies’ criminal background requirements.
- Pass the Police Enforcement Entrance Exam.
- Complete the Police Academy.
- Find your career path.
Can you be a peace officer without being a police officer?
Yes, you could be a peace officer without becoming a police officer in some states, but the powers and where they apply may differ from those of a police officer. States use the terms “police officer,” “peace officer,” “law enforcement officer,” etc. differently. Generally, a peace officer is someone with the power to arrest, execute a warrant, and carry a concealed firearm without a special permit. However, in some jurisdictions, a peace officer will simply write tickets, whereas a law enforcement officer can do the other things listed above.
What are the different types of police officers?
7 different types of police officers:
- Uniformed officers
- Detectives
- State police and highway patrol officers
- Fish and game wardens
- Transit and railroad officers
- Sheriffs
- Special jurisdiction police
Is a peace officer a law enforcement officer?
The position Peace Officer is basically equivalent to the Law Enforcement Officer in most states. Police officers, Highway Patrolmen, Sheriff’s Deputies, Police, Detectives, and other police officers are all called peace officers. To qualify for and retain employment in those positions, the applicant must be certified as a peace officer. It usually involves applying to a state-approved law enforcement school, where the attendee is qualified to be a licensed peace officer.
