What Should One Expect in a Police Academy?

A police academy is a facility where those seeking a career in law enforcement go to get in shape, both physically and mentally, for the rigors of the job. They enter as recruits (or cadets) and emerge as fully certified police officers. In the United States, there are no nationwide guidelines for police academies. Instead, the federal government gives individual states the leeway to establish their own police-training programs, which are tailored to the needs of their local citizens. The information below on the police-academy experience is based on a survey of several online recruitment sites.

Program Length

Academies typically require six to eight months of training and an estimated 320 to 800 hours of course work. Program lengths vary from state to state, depending on the certification prerequisites. For example, the Montana Law Enforcement Academy offers an intensive, 12-week course, while the Boynton Beach Police Academy lasts "about 5 months," according to their websites.

Cost

Most police academies cost nothing, and they screen recruits extensively before training begins. Hopefuls take a written exam, a physical fitness test, a drug test, a background check and submit to an array of other requests. Once they're officially hired, recruits receive salaried pay for every day they spend at the academy. Other academies, particularly ones affiliated with community colleges and county training centers, require tuition payment to enroll in their training programs. They hire recruits--or decline to hire them--only after they've completed the academy. The cost of these programs is typically less than $5,000, and often police departments will reimburse a portion of the recruits' expenses if they're hired.

Physical Demands

Police academies have much in common with military basic training. They have a reputation as an extended "hell week," with rows of cadets rising at dawn, heaving push-ups in the dirt and jogging through inclement weather. In addition to weight training and strength-building exercises, recruits learn self defense and weaponless combat, as well as a mastery of various weapons: firearms, batonsand pepper spray. They engage in high-speed chase simulations as part of an Emergency Vehicle Operations Course (or "EVOC").

Classroom Time

For all of the field work and fitness, more training time is spent on academics than anything else. Here's a breakdown of how a recruit's total hours are spent, courtesy of the Los Angeles Police Department's Academy:

Academics: 230 hours
Driving: 40 hours
Firearms: 113 hours
Human Relations: 100 hour
Law: 105 hours
Physical Training: 142 hours
Tactics: 98 hours
TOTAL: 828 hours

Recruits are schooled in a variety of subjects: search and seizure, arrest and booking procedures, writing reports, investigation techniques, criminal law, cultural sensitivity, community relations and foreign languages.

Lodging

At "live-in" academies, recruits stay in large, open-bay dormitories lined with bunk beds. Male and female recruits sleep in separate barracks, though in some cases they may utilize a common bathroom. Recruits are each assigned to a bed and share a wall locker with their neighbor. They're awoken at 5 a.m. and adhere to a mandatory lights out at 10 p.m. At non-residential academies, recruits are free to live wherever they choose. They keep the same punishing schedule, but most sleep in their own beds at home and commute back and forth from the training facility.

Dress Code

These are the usual dos and don'ts in the dress code of a typical police academy; many of them follow military standards:
Close-cropped hair
Shoes with a high shine
No hats
No cosmetics
No jewelry
No hair accessories
No tank or halter tops
No sandals
No clothing displaying advertising, cartoons or humor

Resources

• ILLINOIS STATE POLICE | "A Day in the Life of a Cadet"