1. Since 1970, FLETC has trained more than a million officers and agents.
As the Nation's largest provider of federal law enforcement training, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) is well-positioned to serve as a conduit for training in areas of strategic importance to the both the Department of Homeland Security and the Nation. Since 1970, FLETC has provided basic and advanced training to more than a million federal, state, local, tribal, and international law enforcement personnel. With more than 90 federal partner agencies, FLETC prepares the vast majority of federal agents and officers who work every day to prevent terrorism and enhance security, secure and manage our borders, enforce and administer our immigration laws, safeguard and secure cyberspace, and strengthen national preparedness and resilience.
Above: A female student uses a driving simulator to experience training scenarios that would be unsafe (such as avoiding pedestrians running into intersection) on a standard driving track.
2. Three of FLETC’s domestic training delivery points were former Navy Bases.
In May 1975, Congress relocated FLETC’s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to the former Glynco Naval Air Station near Brunswick, Georgia. The U.S. Navy Communications Station in Cheltenham, Maryland, and the portion of the former Naval Base identified by legislation as the “Federal Enclave” in Charleston, South Carolina, became FLETC sites in 2001 and 2003, respectively. FLETC’s fourth training delivery point is located at the campus of the former Artesia Christian College, which FLETC acquired in 1989.
Above: International students receive a lesson on field forensics during classes at the ILEA Gaborone.
3. FLETC training reaches officers across the Nation and worldwide.
In addition to training federal law enforcement, FLETC trained more than 4,500 state, local, and tribal students and more than 1,000 international students in Fiscal Year 2016. FLETC is on track to deliver 283 export training programs on a variety of topics to our state, local, and tribal students this fiscal year. FLETC contributes academic, program, and operational support to the International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEA) in Hungary, Thailand, Botswana, El Salvador, and Roswell, NM, to include instructing in the ILEAs’ core and specialized programs. Since 1995, FLETC training has reached officers from more than 100 countries, and FLETC has hosted study visits and collaborative meetings on law enforcement training with delegations from more than 50 countries.
Above: Students are trained to collect evidence from a crime scene in a specially-designed garage in FLETC’s Forensic Science Training Facility.
4. FLETC ensures that its training keeps pace with rapidly changing technology.
FLETC works to enhance training by applying and validating innovative solutions to meet emerging challenges. Examples of training innovations include designing state-of-the-art training facilities, integrating advanced simulators into training, developing an After-Action Review System for use in situational training, and providing online courses through a web-based portal. These and other innovations connect FLETC with new generations of students who expect technology to be omnipresent.
Above: FLETC Charleston uses a former container ship located on the site of the former Charleston Navy Base for boarding tactics training.
5. FLETC develops training in areas of critical contemporary importance.
FLETC engages with professional associations and conducts ongoing research to ensure its training meets emerging needs and addresses contemporary topics, such as anti/counter-terrorism, cybercrime, intelligence awareness, and critical infrastructure protection. FLETC partners with academia and law enforcement agencies to host summits and conferences on topics ranging from psychology, preventing multiple casualty violence and violent extremism, cybercrime, and other trending issues in policing. FLETC is engaged with organizations such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Sheriffs’ Association, Police Executive Research Forum, INTERPOL, and International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training, and with academics and practitioners worldwide. Through these partnerships and the conversations they foster, FLETC is able to proactively influence the future of law enforcement training.
6. FLETC’s instructors comprise a mixture of permanent FLETC employees and federal law enforcement personnel on detail assignments from FLETC’s federal Partner Organizations.
FLETC consolidated training model calls for an instructional staff that comprises a mixture of permanent FLETC employees and federal officers and investigators on assignment from their parent organizations or recently retired from the field. This provides a balance of instructional experience and fresh insight, and an instructor cadre with diverse experience. This combination greatly benefits FLETC’s students.