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I have a question that Has had me wondering for a while now. On a few profiles I have seen I see Basic Peace Officer Course at such and such college in TX. Now my question.  How the heck does this work? Is this something controlled by the State of TX or does it vary from region to region within TX.? Reason I ask is here in Montana there is only one Law Enforcement Academy in the State. It's a bit confusing to me that a state can have so many academies.

The licensing for Texas is controlled by TCLEOSE (Texas Commision of Law Enforcement Standards and Education). There are NUMEROUS regional academies, as well as academies hosted by college campuses. They are taught by adjunct instructors (certified LE Instructors, such as myself). The testing is controlled by TCLEOSE in Austin.

This is how future officers 'self-sponsor' themselves prior to being hired. Those who apply and are accepted by a larger agency, will go through that agencies academy (which is also controlled by TCLEOSE).

I know...it confused the hell out of me when I first started, but it is actually a very efficient system.

Yes and no.

The academy is basic preperation for the state exam, which is standard state wide. How each academy gets the recruits to the exam varies. Up until recently a physical training cirriculum was not mandated by TCLEOSE, but now is. So many hours of certain areas (ie: Traffic Law, Penal Code, Defensive Tactics, etc...) was also mandated, but as you can imagine, my lesson plan would vary from another instructors. The instructors are certified.

bad_LT has or does that present(ed) problems ? Such as being academy graduate from one area and not accepted in an other area? I just see all kinds of problems with it.

Each department is different here, They are gettin better though. Had a friend started with the Richmond City PD went to their academy, stayed three years left to go to one of the counties, went to there full academy (gotta be trained their way), Left there and went to the State Police, went to their academy (trainned their way). Each department here want you to learn their style of policing. Not being a native of this state i found it kind of odd, but they act like it is the only way to do it..

There is a state certifying test and it has to meet the state standards but the little lings are different, reports, ect

Not a problem It's interesting how in varies from state to state and then within each state. I think it makes the job a hell of a lot harder than it should be.

in KY there is:

THE KENTUCKY STATE POLICE ACADEMY- Just KY Troopers- "Thin Gray Line"

The Louisville Metro Academy

The Lexington Metro Academy

DOCJT-Richmond KY- Everyone who is not in the above listed academies goes here

Texas is BIG and POPULATED. There are many academies that can teach the basic police academy course however all are controlled by TECLEOSE. Upon the completion of the course the class takes the state exam administered by TECLEOSE. The college or department holding the class is rated by the average score of the class and the number of failures, if there are any. If an academy has low averages and numerous failures then TECLEOSE will terminate that academy's teaching authority. The departments of any size have there own training academy's. Smaller agencies rely on the others or for traveling classes. Texas has alot of mandated annual trining that every officer must take to keep the TECLEOSE license. We have differant levels of licenses as well. Basic, Advanced and Master. Most agencies pay incentites for each level. (Example Basic has no incentive, Advanced $150.00 monthly, Master $250.00. ) You get to higher levels by training hours and number of years. Hope this helps a little.

Wow, Here in Montana it's a live in Academy.Day classes and nightclasses plus home work, A week on the range and driving course. A week of scenerios day and night. DT's evryday for 6 weeks about 2 hrs a day before academic classes. . This course is 12 weeks. Once you graduate you can apply for your Basic certificate after one Year. Then you have to have so many years and so many hours of P.O.S.T. training to get your intermediate, advanced, supervisory ,command and administrative certifications. There are hundreds of hours available through P.O.S.T. in addition to the Basic School. Montana Highway Patrol classes are 4 weeks longer than the Basic academy as they cover traffic , traffic and more traffic, commercial vehicle inspections and traffic.

CO/DO have i believe a three week live in school and they are not LEO's. There are of course advanced scools for detectives/ Investigators, instructor certification is done through the Fbi. We also have the oppotunities to attend many other FBI schools and achieve a national certification. For example I am certified throught he FBI as a Post Blast Investigator, Instructor, Incident Commander, Accident reconstruction blah , blah , blah.

Hardcopy69 says ...

Texas is BIG and POPULATED. There are many academies that can teach the basic police academy course however all are controlled by TECLEOSE. Upon the completion of the course the class takes the state exam administered by TECLEOSE. The college or department holding the class is rated by the average score of the class and the number of failures, if there are any. If an academy has low averages and numerous failures then TECLEOSE will terminate that academy's teaching authority. The departments of any size have there own training academy's. Smaller agencies rely on the others or for traveling classes. Texas has alot of mandated annual trining that every officer must take to keep the TECLEOSE license. We have differant levels of licenses as well. Basic, Advanced and Master. Most agencies pay incentites for each level. (Example Basic has no incentive, Advanced $150.00 monthly, Master $250.00. ) You get to higher levels by training hours and number of years. Hope this helps a little.

These academies are a dime a dozen, as only the larger cities can afford to hire and send cadets to these regional academies.  Often times, a cadet can sign up for a certification course with or without sponsor and find themselves unable to gain employment. I think only one cadet in our class didn't get picked up by anybody. One of my classmates is already close to being Chief Deputy nearby. 

I'm lucky to have decided to go through when i did, because it's much harder to gain entry into our regional academy as the Sheriff's Officer and Waco PD uses them now versus their own training academy.

puty nearby.

The Criminal Justice Training Council of Massachusetts sets the standards for all Municipal Police Academies. The State Police Have there own Back to Basic Training Academy, They loose about 1/4 of the applicants in the first two days, Just like Boot Camp for them , They take great pride in turning out "Marine Type Troopers". The Municipal academies are not quite so militaristic in style. I come from the older 480 Hr. class , now I believe it has been moved up to 600 hrs. and yearly up dates. The State has about 20 Municipal Academies that all go by the same guidelines set out by the C.J.T.C. . Also most of the Departments are Civil Service so as to eliminate POLITICS from getting involved.  "political interference in Massachusetts, never happen, we have Kerry and Kennedy as our guiding saviours". Ha-ha.