Police officers have to go through intensive training in order to be a licensed police officer. Although education levels vary between police officers, all officers attend a police academy to prepare them for working in an agency or unit. If you’re trying to figure out how to choose the best police training institute, we’ve got the details you need here.
Location
The most important aspect of choosing the police training institute to attend is the location where you want to live and work. If you want to stay and work in your hometown, you should check out the various police academies for your local state, city, or county police units. Typically, each locality has their own police training institute or academy and works with recruits directly. If you do not want to stay at home, you have a much bigger playing field to look through. If you’re hoping to get your bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and do the police training as a joint program, then you should take the location of your undergraduate degree into consideration.
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is another important aspect to consider when choosing a police training institute. Except for training institutes that are tied to criminal justice programs at universities, most police academies are sponsored by a unit. Police officers work for state, city, and county localities, and each locality has different jurisdictions and duty responsibilities. Whether you’re staying at home or going elsewhere, consider where and what kind of jurisdiction you’d like to work.
Open-Enrollment vs. Unit-Sponsored
Most police academies are sponsored by police units. This means that in addition to passing exams and meeting certain standards, a police unit must have room for you and desire to sponsor you through a police academy. Other academies have open enrollment, which means you would pay for it out-of-pocket and apply to police units after you graduate. There are also programs at universities that allow you to obtain a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and work with local units to sponsor you through a police academy while doing your college coursework or after graduation.
Application Requirements
Most police academies require you to pass entrance exams that test your verbal, written, and critical-thinking skills. Different localities have different score requirements. If you have trouble taking tests, you should look for a police training institute that either has a lower required entrance score or accommodates applicants with testing disabilities like dyslexia or other reading disorders.
