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Police Academy Redux, part 2

By Gerry Goldshine

Petaluma Police Department, retired

 

 

Part 2 (part one appeared April 2, 2015)
Beside myself, there were two other recruits from the Sheriff’s Office attending the Academy with me. The largest contingent of recruits was from a Silicon Valley Department of Public Safety. I found it a bit startling when I learned that there were several people in the class who had not been hired by any particular department; in essence, they were “civilians” putting themselves through the training in the hopes that successful completion would make them a more attractive employment prospect. I was also surprised at how small our class was; while I don’t recall the exact number of people who started training, I do know that 24 of us graduated and there was not an especially high attrition rate. Contrary to my fearful expectations, SRJC did indeed run a low stress, twelve-week-long training program whose atmosphere was almost collegial. Having a small class was not necessarily a bad thing because it meant much more one to one interaction with the various instructors. For me, the relaxed training environment took some getting used to and as I was the only recruit with any military training, I often found the lack of discipline and decorum disconcerting.

In 1979, women moving from administrative and non-sworn positions to becoming street officers were still somewhat of a “novelty”. In my class, they numbered less than a half dozen, one of whom was a fellow SCSO recruit. I didn’t find it particularly unsettling to have women among my classmates; they had been moving into “non-traditional” occupational specialties in the Army for some time, so I was quite used to training alongside and working with women. Some of the less enlightened male recruits felt differently and made no effort to hide their opinion that women did not belong, behaving like stereotypical misogynists. One of these “gentlemen” was almost a match to the “Police Academy” character “Mahoney” but with all the negative traits and none of the positive. Like Mahoney, somehow this person managed to make it all the way through training and graduated with the other recruits from his department.

Police Academy 3-Officer Hooks
Police Academy 3-Officer Hooks

Nearly every training course I’ve taken has had a cast of characters very much like those in the Police Academy movies. There always seemed to be a “Tackleberry” type; the borderline super-macho personality disorder who carried a virtual arsenal in the trunk of his car, always wore camouflage fatigues, often reckless and overeager. In most of the coed classes I been in, there was usually someone very much like the character “Hooks”; a female trainee soft of voice, uncertain of her abilities, and often deferring to men. Invariably there was someone like “Hightower”, the huge muscular guy who was smarter that he appeared, gentler than he seemed and loyal as a puppy dog to his friends. Finally there invariably seemed to be someone like the characters “Sweetchuck” and “Fackler”; this was the guy who tripped over his own feet, walked into closed doors, had a voice that cracked when under stress, lacked a scintilla of common sense and invariably either shot himself in the foot or a fellow classmate in the arse. Looking back, each in their own way, made the training far more interesting as well as more memorable, though at the time I sure many of us considered them with less kindly thoughts.

Having just come out of the Army where highly strenuous physical fitness standards were de rigueur, I found the “PT” at the Academy less than challenging. Unlike the other subject areas, such as criminal law, criminalistics, and firearms, our class did not have an instructor dedicated to physical conditioning. To be sure, we had someone to teach weaponless or hand to hand tactics but no one was assigned for every day physical training or “PT,” something which I had practically lived by over the prior four years in the Army. More often than not, our PT consisted of volleyball or disorganized workouts in the weight room. We did do some running, usually no more than two miles and generally less, during which time nearly everyone complained. For me at that time, a mile run was a warm up as I had been used to running up to five miles in full combat gear in under 40 minutes. I cannot recall if we had to pass a PT test to graduate beyond completing an obstacle course within a specified time frame. I thought then as I do now that we rendered a disservice with such lackadaisical physical conditioning. Aside from the obvious health benefits, maintaining a high state of physical conditioning is essential in surviving street encounters from fist fights to foot pursuits to the use of deadly force. I wasn’t the only recruit that was disconcerted by this and I do know it eventually changed for the better.

Contrary to Zed’s bit of wisdom, my academy class spent a great deal of time in the classroom receiving instruction on subjects ranging from the obvious, such as criminal law to less considered but critical report writing. However, looking back over 35 years later, the very first place to which my Field Training Officer took me, when I was with the Sheriff’s Office, was a Winchell’s Donut shop. Much as I hate to admit it, even to this day many a cop visits the local donut eatery because it’s fast and the coffee is always hot; I guess there was a bit of truth to what Zed had to say.

Police Cadets
Police Cadets

Donuts aside, we were about to get a great deal of information distilled and condensed into a 12 week time frame. Hours were spent on learning the fundamentals of California Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure. Things that now still seem so basic were new to many of us back then, such as the differences between statutory and case law–both of which we needed to know. What were felony, misdemeanor and infraction type of crimes? We committed to memory the elements of the more commonly used sections of the Penal Code, such as 211 P.C. which is robbery or 459 P.C. which is burglary. We had to know the applicable sections of the Business and Professions Code, particularly those parts dealing with alcoholic beverages. There were the parts of the Health and Safety Code that dealt with drugs, legal and illicit. We had to know the parts of the Welfare and Institutions Code some of which dealt with children and psychiatric cases. Then there was the California Vehicle Code, which covered everything from driving while intoxicated to what color the front turn signals on a particular year car have to be.

All those various codes and laws were just really a foundation and a starting point. Knowing what constituted a violation of a particular law was just part of the process. There followed training on the complex laws governing arrest, probable cause to detain versus probable cause to arrest. We had to know the most up to date court decisions and laws governing arrest, search and seizure. Then there were the courts; traffic, municipal and superior. As a peace officer, you had to know the differences between them and what type of case went to what court. Beyond that, we had to have a working knowledge of how the criminal justice system functioned, from the filing of a criminal complaint to an arraignment to a court or jury trial. If that wasn’t complex enough, there were separate systems for adult and juveniles.
I was not the only one with a college background in Criminal Justice and though we were familiar with much of the material, there was still much that was new in some manner. It was all coming at us fast and furious. Fortunately, there was plenty of practical, hands-on training that got us out of the classroom to stretch our legs and shake out the cobwebs that inevitably formed in our minds. Naturally, we all looked forward to firearms training. Levels of experience with firearms varied greatly among us. Many grew up around guns through hunting and other sporting activities. As a result of my Army training, I had a familiarity with a very wide assortment of weapons, though it seemed highly unlikely I would have need of an anti-tank missile system as a Deputy Sheriff. As a deputy, my duty weapon was going to be a Smith and Wesson Model 66, .357 magnum revolver, which took some adjustment, as my sidearm while in the Military Police was the classic military Model 1911, .45 semi-automatic pistol. In the late seventies and early eighties, firearm training was on the cusp of a revolution, both in technology and theory. I was fortunate to have been exposed to some of it while in the Army. There was interactive training with lasers giving immediate feedback under simulated combat conditions; automated targets made to look like human silhouettes; and shooting in a variety of conditions both in lighting and weather. Our instructors were some of the best, most knowledgeable military people in the world when it came to firearms. Gone were the days of plinking away at a circular stationary target some hundred yards away.

 

Witchita, Kansas Police Recruit shooting training
Witchita, Kansas Police Recruit shooting training

Back to my Academy firearms training, I wasn’t expecting our instructor to be someone who split his time between firefighting and police work in the South Bay. Understand that I’m not saying he was a poor instructor; it just was not what I was expecting. While I had qualified “Expert” with nearly every Infantry weapon in the Army, I was only shooting just slightly above average with that .357 pistol. It wasn’t until several years later, when I was a Petaluma Police Officer, a range master discovered while right-handed, I was left eye dominant, which had a great effect on my pistol shooting accuracy. In addition to the live fire range, we also received instruction in what was called “Shoot-Don’t Shoot”, the idea being to develop situational awareness and judgment when employing deadly force. In 1979, our “state of the art” technology for the practical portion of this training consisted of a video projector which showed a scenario on a butcher paper screen and a pistol that fired wax bullets. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one that felt a bit foolish yelling “Freeze!” at that butcher paper.

Read the conclusion of Police Academy Redux on April 9, 2015

Traffic Officer Gerry Goldshine aka T-36  Petaluma Police Department mid-1980's
Traffic Officer Gerry Goldshine
aka T-36
Petaluma Police Department mid-1980’s
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Police Academy – Redux, part 1

By Gerry Goldshine

“Cadets, I’d now like to discuss something that’ll be vital for you to know when your, like, out here, on the job, as a police officer. And, that’s the correct way on how to eat a doughnut”

Zed McGlunk
Zed McGlunk

Zed McGlunk, “Police Academy 2”

When I first wrote this piece back in November of 2012, I took a slightly lighthearted look on the training I received when I attended the local regional Police Academy back in 1979. However, since then, almost daily controversial incidents are shaking the Law Enforcement profession to its core. One question I keep hearing with increasing frequency, and that I find myself asking, is what training these officers are receiving. When I attended my academy, in many respects, the curriculum was developed in response to the tumult and unrest that characterized much of the late 1960 and early 1970’s. The pushback against Civil Rights led to riots that tore apart entire cities. The dissatisfaction with the War in Viet Nam led to violent protest that spilled onto university campuses. Radical terrorists with violent agendas led the way to a surge in violent crime. Without delving into a historical dissertation of those troubled times, law enforcement found itself mired in an unprecedented quagmire caught between those wanting social change and those demanding a return to “law and order.” Short staffed, ill-equipped and ill-trained, police officers across the country found themselves the target of dissatisfaction from all sides, often with tragic outcomes. It soon became obvious the old way of policing was not working and change began to take place.
Among its virtues and vices, the first “Police Academy” movie was a satirical look at some of the “revolutionary” adjustments Law Enforcement was undergoing in the early 1980’s. While mostly farcical, one of the few aspects of police work the movie did get right was that first critical training every police officer, deputy sheriff, highway patrol officer, constable and every Federal Agent has to successfully complete, known as “The Academy.” Most all such academies generally have a two-fold purpose. Obviously, the first is to prepare a cadet or recruit both academically and physically for the rigors of law enforcement field work. More feared, the second is to identify and screen out those individuals who prove unsuitable for a career in law enforcement either because of academic deficiencies, an inability to meet the physical training demands or from a variety of other reasons, including psychological.

 

Tampa, Fla cadets PT
Tampa, Fla cadets PT

How this is accomplished can vary widely; sometimes state training regulations mandate what is taught and how. In other instances, departmental training philosophies dictate training methodology. More often than not, it’s a combination of both. Some are near-military in their training approach with high stress and intense discipline as one might find in a “boot” camp. Others take a more relaxed, college campus type approach to training. Budgetary concerns are a significant factor; some agencies either by choice or necessity, put their recruits through the bare minimum of required training hours taking the approach that what is learned “on the job” is more meaningful. Other departments want better rounded recruits and can afford longer training academies.
In California, the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training mandates that a police recruit have a minimum “Basic Training” course of 664 hours. Most all police agencies in California have some type of field training program that follows graduation from an academy; they are usually around 12 weeks long or about 480 hours. Now 1200 hours or more of training may seem like a lot but consider this: in order to get a Cosmetologist license in California an individual must have 1600 hours of classroom instruction and another 3200 hours of formal apprenticeship. That’s a total of over 4800 hours! When’s the last time you read about a beautician taking someone’s life with a mascara wand?
Despite the plethora of books, movies or television shows of the police genre, few if any ever really devote much time to this essential beginners experience in anyway other than in a cursory manner. As every recruit is an individual, they bring to this formative training, differing levels of life experience, work experience, schooling, physical capabilities and emotional maturity. Consequently, while there are common training goals every recruit must meet, each always comes away with a differing perspective of their overall academy experience.
My own academy training took place in late 1979. While what I encountered was unique to me given my background, it does provide a framework for what someone going into the profession and attending a smaller, regional police academy in the early 1980’s would likely encounter.

 

SCSO Badge
SCSO Badge

I was hired by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office in September, 1979, who sent me to the Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) Police Academy in Santa Rosa, California. I had a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from California State University, Los Angeles and had just spent four years in the Army on active duty, most of that time as a commissioned officer. I had actually begun my law enforcement career almost two years earlier when I received a transfer from the Infantry to the Military Police. Still, I was savvy enough to know I had much to learn as there are vast differences between the missions of military law enforcement and civilian.

 

Joseph Wambaugh author of "The New Centurions"
Joseph Wambaugh author of “The New Centurions”

So, what were my overall expectations and goals as I embarked upon this new training experience? I had been through some of the most stressful, physically demanding and mentally challenging training that the military offered at that time. I had read Joseph Wambaugh’s early book “The New Centurions” which painted a very stark portrait of the Los Angeles Police Academy of the 1960’s very much like what I had encountered in Officer Candidate School, where the slightest mistake or rule infraction could mean failure and dismissal. The training sergeant from the Sheriff’s Office had told me the regional academy I was to attend was pretty laid back compared to what I’d encountered in the Army. However, having been erroneously lulled by such descriptions before, I was going to hope he was right but prepare for the worst case scenario.

Read part 2 on Thursday, April 2nd

Traffic Officer Gerry Goldshine aka T-36  Petaluma Police Department mid-1980's
Traffic Officer Gerry Goldshine
aka T-36
Petaluma Police Department mid-1980’s
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A Matter of Life and Death

 

Fr. David R. Powell
Fr. David R. Powell
Father David Powell will head the the Santa Rosa Police Chaplaincy Program; he is a former Oakland cop.

This article appeared in my local newspaper, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat on Sunday, March 22, 2015. It adds a dimension to police officer training that isn’t often publicized. I consider this an insightful scrap of information to the help the public make informed decisions about police involved shooting. What he doesn’t say is what every law enforcement officer knows, “If a cop gets killed/shot/disabled, he won’t be able to help citizens who are in need.”

–Thonie

The training involved facing realistic filmed reproductions of actual situations in which life and death decisions were made by police officers in the past. The trainee was provided with a police sidearm from which electronically accurate laser beams could be fired at the projected simulations so one could see where the “bullets” actually hit the life-sized images on the screen. Also, the simulator “suspects” fire back at the trainees.

The volunteer chaplain candidates going through this ordeal were compassionate folk, but they regularly killed dozens of civilians during sessions in the simulator. They all failed to turn in perfect scores and, more often than not, were shot themselves.

We might examine some of the forces that influence a typical police officer who encounters a situation that compels a decision whether or not to use deadly force.

First, there is the paradox that in a peaceful community police don’t react well because they lack the experience of incidents of violence as an officer in a large city.

Second, Andy Lopez, the victim of the deputy- involved shooting near Santa Rosa on Oct. 22, 2013, was a teenager. In America today, where would you expect to encounter a teenager with an assault rifle? The rifle looked especially real because the orange plastic cap that was meant to identify it as a toy had been gone. Also, a common experience of police is that if a suspect is a teenager, he or she is more likely to shoot than an adult.

Third, what are the moral priorities among the choices open to an officer? Popular opinion is that the officer should hold his fire until the suspect fires first. This is the legacy of a century of Hollywood. In any Hollywood drama, the villain shoots first, and the hero has to hold his or her fire until he or she is shot at. But is that a morally defensible policy for real-life situations? Isn’t a police officer’s first moral concern to stay alive so he can come home to his wife and kids and return to the job the next day? His second priority is the protection of citizens. His third priority is to try to avoid deadly force in achieving the first two priorities. All three priorities must reflect obedience to the laws of the land.

The emotional burden this moral choice puts on officers is enormous. If Deputy Erick Gelhaus’ case is typical, he has only a 20 percent chance of lasting in his career more than two years. My heart goes out to Andy and his family, but I also pray that God will give this deputy some peace.

When I was a police officer in Oakland in the late 1950s and early ’60s, youth still had some respect for police officers. Today, that is less the case. Peer pressure on youth today is to defy authority. In the language of teens it’s called “attitude.”

Peer pressure heavily weighs on teens to demonstrate bravado (attitude) when encountered by police. But police fear losing control when confronted by a teen with a defiant attitude. It is a dangerous situation that has become all too common.

The Rev. David R. Powell of Sebastopol, former executive director of Sonoma County’s Law Enforcement Chaplaincy Service, has 30 years of law enforcement experience.

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Ramblings by Hal

Cop Funerals, Part Two

By Hal Collier

This Ramblings took me a long time to write and it’s Part 2. 

 

I try to keep most of my Ramblings fun and on a positive note but the fact is that there are a lot of negative aspects of police work.  If you work for over three decades in a dangerous job, there’s going to be some tragedy.

 

I saw a lot of partners seriously injured and pensioned off.  Some couldn’t even work other jobs.  Think of being sentenced to watching soap operas, or Oprah every day. It’s just like being retired but without good health.  Believe it or not some of them were the lucky ones.

 

I attended more police funerals then any cop should have.  In the Police Academy they had a class on officer survival taught by Bob Smitson.  It was very graphic with pictures of dead cops on a morgue table.  The class taught that you had to survive any confrontation.  After the class, I walked to my car with my hand on my gun—and I was at the Police Academy.  A month later, I was sent into the streets of Los Angles praying that I’d never be in the pictures shown in that class.

 

photo by californiareport.org
photo by californiareport.org

I wasn’t even off probation when I attended my first police officer funeral.  My training officer told me that I had to attend; it was my duty. I was a training officer for twenty years and made my probationers attend at least one police officer funeral.  It’s something that you will never forget.  You see an American Flag-draped coffin, knowing that it contains a police officer who last week was doing the same job you did last night.  If it’s an open casket, seeing a cop lying there in uniform is a sight you’ll never forget.  You see the grieving wife, kids and family.  It’s a real wake up call.  You suddenly realize that you’re not invincible.

 

I couldn’t tell you how many cop funerals I attended, but it was more than I should have.  For a while I attended every LAPD officer’s funeral, and a few LA County Sheriffs.  There were also a few smaller city officer’s funerals.  It was the least you can do for officers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

 

The news media will make an appearance and show a thirty second clip of the funeral on the 5 o’clock news.  They will then show two minutes on a drug rehab for out-of-work actors.

 

 

Funeral band on badge
Funeral band on badge

A police officer’s funeral is a fitting tribute.  I have seen officers attend from all over the country.  All wearing their best dress uniforms, their leather gear shined to a high gloss.

   

All had that black elastic band across their badges.  Some come thousands of miles to honor a fallen comrade.  I have been at funerals where the procession of police cars stretched for miles, sometimes lined with citizens who appreciate the sacrifices we make.

 

The first funerals I attended just had the service and the 21 gun salute at the cemetery.  My partner, Jim Tomer, collected a shell casing from each funeral we attended.  Later funerals had a helicopter flyover with the missing man formation. 

 

Riderless horse
Riderless horse

The LAPD Mounted Unit has a riderless horse with the boots reversed in the stirrups.  Then there’s those bag pipes.  Those damn bag pipes!!!  I can usually control my emotions at funerals until those bag pipes play Amazing Grace.  I have learned to bring enough Kleenex for both my partner and I.

 

Most of the funerals I attended, I didn’t personally know the officer. They were easier, if there is such a thing.  You still see the grieving family and know that their Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries will never be the same.

 

Hal

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Tales from the Barking Muse

Police Academy (no, not that one), Part 2

Police Academy

Part 2

Physical Training

Tampa, Fla cadets PT

It was my understanding that the faculty was in the process of revamping the physical fitness training, though what my class was presented with I found to be less than challenging. Unlike virtually all the other subject areas, such as criminal law, criminalistics, and firearms, our class did not have an instructor dedicated to physical conditioning. To be sure, we had someone to teach weaponless or hand to hand tactics but no one was assigned for every day physical training (PT) something which I had practically lived by over the prior four years in the Army. More often than not, our PT consisted of volleyball or disorganized workouts in the weight room. We did do some running, usually no more than two miles and generally less, during which time nearly everyone complained. For me at that time, a mile run was a warm up as I had been used to running up to five miles in full combat gear in under 40 minutes. I cannot recall if we had to pass a PT test to graduate beyond completing an obstacle course within a specified time frame. I thought then as I do now that we rendered a disservice with such lackadaisical physical conditioning. Aside from the obvious health benefits, maintaining a high state of physical conditioning is essential in surviving street encounters from fist fights to foot pursuits to the use of deadly force. I do know this all eventually changed for the better.

Academics: Codes

Police Cadets

Contrary to Zed’s bit of wisdom my academy class spent a great deal of time in the classroom receiving instruction on subjects ranging from the obvious like criminal law to the not so obvious such as report writing. However, looking back, the first place to which my Field Training Officer took me when I was with the Sheriff’s Office was a Winchell’s Donut shop. I guess there was a bit of truth to what Zed had to say. Be that as it may, with my education, I came to the academy with a pretty thorough knowledge of most of the subject areas we upon which we were to receive training.  However, unlike the laid back university setting where I earned that degree over four years of study, I was going to receive much of that same information, updated of course, and more distilled and concentrated into a 12 week time frame. Hours were spent on learning the fundamentals of California Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure.  Things that now still seem so basic were new to many of us back then such as the differences between statutory and case law–both of which we needed to know. What were felony, misdemeanor and infraction type of crimes? We committed to memory the elements of the more commonly used sections of the Penal Code, such as 211 P.C. which is robbery or 459 P.C. which is burglary. We had to know the applicable sections of the Business and Professions Code, particularly those parts dealing with Alcoholic Beverages. There were the parts of the Health and Safety Code about drugs, legal and illicit. We had to know the sections of the Welfare and Institutions Code some of which dealt with children and psychiatric cases. Then there was the California Vehicle Code, which covered everything from Driving Under the Influence to what color the front turn signals on a particular year car have to be.

All those various codes and laws were just really a foundation and a starting point. Knowing what constituted a violation of a particular law was just part of the process. There followed training on complex the laws governing arrest, probable to detain versus probable cause to arrest. We had to know the most up to date court decisions and laws governing Search and Seizure. Then there were the courts; traffic, municipal and superior. As a peace officer, you had to know the differences between them and what type of case went to what court. Beyond that we had to have a working knowledge of how the criminal justice system functioned from the filing of a criminal complaint to an arraignment to a court or jury trial. If that wasn’t complex enough, there were separate systems for adult and juveniles.

Weapons: Firearms Training

Witchita, Kansas Police Recruit shooting training

I was not the only one with a college background in Criminal Justice. Though we were familiar with much of the material, some of it was new and it was coming at us fast and furious. Fortunately, there was plenty of practical, hands-on training that got us out of the classroom. Naturally, we all looked forward to firearms training. Levels of experience with firearms varied greatly among us. Many grew up around guns through hunting and other sporting activities. As a result of my Army training, I had a familiarity with a very wide assortment of firearms, though it seemed highly unlikely I would have need of an anti-tank missile system as a deputy sheriff. The duty weapon I was to carry as a deputy was a .357 magnum revolver, which took some getting used to as my sidearm while in the Military Police was the classic military .45 semi-automatic pistol. In the late seventies and early eighties, firearm training was on the cusp of a revolution, both in technology and theory. While I hate to keep beating the proverbial dead cavalry horse about my Army experience, I had been exposed to some of this new training. While in the Army, I experienced interactive training with lasers giving immediate feedback under simulated combat conditions; automated targets made to look like human silhouettes; and shooting in a variety of conditions both in lighting and weather. Our firearms instructors were some of the best, most knowledgeable people in the world.

Gone were the days of simply plinking away at a stationary target.

Check in Sunday for part 3 and conclusion of Gerry Goldshine’s incisive and vivid glimpse into 1980’s police academy.

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Law Enforcement Training

The following is a guest post from Craig Schwartz, a Lieutenant (for now) at Santa Rosa Police Department. He is posting on Facebook under the SRPD page. This is a copy of the first post. The intro is from the FBI website explaining the purpose of the academy.

I think you’ll agree–this kind of training only furthers the professionalism of all cops, through the ranks.

 

FBI National Academy seal
FBI National Academy seal

The National Academy

The FBI National Academy is a professional course of study for U.S. and international law enforcement leaders that serves to improve the administration of justice in police departments and agencies at home and abroad and to raise law enforcement standards, knowledge, and cooperation worldwide.

Its mission is “to support, promote, and enhance the personal and professional development of law enforcement leaders by preparing them for complex, dynamic, and contemporary challenges through innovative techniques, facilitating excellence in education and research, and forging partnerships throughout the world.”

Who attends.

Leaders and managers of state and local police, sheriffs’ departments, military police organizations, and federal law enforcement agencies. Participation is by invitation only, though a nomination process. Participants are drawn from every state in the union, from U.S. territories, and from over 150 international partner nations. See below for more details on graduates over the years.

The course of study.

For 10 classroom-hour weeks, four times a year, classes of some 250 officers take undergraduate and/or graduate college courses at our Quantico, Virginia, campus in the following areas: law, behavioral science, forensic science, understanding terrorism/terrorist mindsets, leadership development, communication, and health/fitness. Officers participate in a wide range of leadership and specialized training, and they share ideas, techniques, and experiences with each other, creating lifelong partnerships that span state and national lines.

Lt Craig Schwartz
Lt Craig Schwartz

Craig Schwartz

Hello everyone,

We have finished our first week here in Quantico, with 10 to go. This has been a tremendous experience so far, with great classes and instructors along with excellent opportunities to meet and learn from other law enforcement leaders from around the world. There are 262 students in session 251 of the FBI National Academy, representing 49 states and over 20 foreign countries. I have met students from Kurdistan in northern Iraq, France, Argentina, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Great Britain, Afghanistan, Antigua, Ukraine, and more. It is interesting to talk to leaders from agencies in other states to learn how they deal with the law enforcement and management issues we all face. My roommate is from a small department in Kansas, with 13 employees serving a population of 5,000 people. Despite the small size of his agency, he has been able to share experiences with programs that are worth evaluating for our department.

I have six classes here. The classes are both graduate and undergraduate level courses accredited through the University of Virginia. The two I will focus on in this update are: Intelligence Theory and Application for Law Enforcement Managers; and Solving Ethical Dilemmas in Law Enforcement. The intelligence class focuses on using data and intelligence to drive law enforcement operations, as well as methods for sharing that information between law enforcement agencies. We will have several guest speakers in the class, including Debra Piehl, a project manager for Data Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS). The class on ethics has already resulted in lively discussions about moral and ethical dilemmas from history and those we currently face. It is a class that challenges our ideas about ourselves and how we look at the world. Both classes should provide excellent learning points to bring home with me.

The Academy also focuses a great deal on fitness, with three fitness classes each week and two physical challenges for students. One, the Yellow Brick Road, culminates in a 6.1 mile run which includes a 3+ mile section over the Marine Corps endurance course. There are 26 obstacles on the course. We participate in a challenge each week, until we do the Yellow Brick Road Course in week 10. Students who complete the challenge are awarded a yellow brick with their class number stenciled on it. The other challenge is for the blue brick. To complete that challenge students must swim at least 34 miles during the program. I’m five miles in after week 1.

Each Wednesday is an enrichment day, with guest speakers and other events scheduled. More on that next time…

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