Police Training USA

[DaveM]

Just a question about the police training in the USA who does this. Is it a national thing or do they just get training from the local police department that they join. I am also a bit unsure about who is who as you seem to have local sheriffs and state police ?

 

[Snog]

Training can vary from state to state and city to city. Some are strictly college based, some are county, regional or state based and some are actually based in the city you'll be an officer in.

There are also much more than local sheriffs and state police. There...

City Police
County Police
State Marshals (in some states)
State Police
And then the whole slew of federal agencies that a country wide.

If there is an officer here on the site. He/she might be able to provide more insight.

 

[DaveM]

I think I know more about how the federal agencies work than how each police department comes together. We basically have one national police force and then the different cities would have their own traffic police. The national police our side used to have to go and get trained at a police collage but looking at the state of them these days I don't think that is the case any longer.

 

[Snog]

In the US, laws can vary from state to state, county to county and city to city. What is illegal in one city or state may be perfectly legal in another. I think that's why training is mostly localized in the US.

 

[DaveM]

That could be a bit confusing if you move around a lot but I have heard this especially with some traffic laws. I suppose we just not big enough to have to do something like that here.

 

[Webster]

Just a question about the police training in the USA who does this. Is it a national thing or do they just get training from the local police department that they join. I am also a bit unsure about who is who as you seem to have local sheriffs and state police ?

Other than the training federal law enforcement goes through...completely local, Dave; for instance, here in North Carolina, before you can even begin going through any specific department's training program, you must have a BLET - Basic Law Enforcement Training - certificate showing you understand the laws of the state of North Carolina and all the vagaries of it.