Law Enforcement Training in the United States of America: A Narrative Review

The United States has over 17,500 local, regional, and state law enforcement (LE) agencies with initial (academy) training occurring across 822 local academies operated by academic entities (usually community or technical colleges), local LE agencies, regional training centers, and state academies. Numerous federal agencies with LE powers also conduct academy training across numerous sites. At the same time, the United States does not possess one unified set of selection, curriculum (content or hours), training, exit, injury surveillance, or training methodology laws, regulations, or enforceable standards. Each state sets its own standards with many academies adding to state minimums. This results in LE recruitment and training that is extremely diverse, challenging, evolving, complex, multifaceted, and mostly driven at and across local (city, county, and state) levels. As a result, those responsible for recruit physical fitness development must possess a deep level of understanding of these diverse populations, protocols, and rules. This narrative review provides a snapshot of the extremely complex combination of factors associated with LE and LE training as, for those involved in LE training, failure to understand these factors will impend any human performance initiatives.